


Ty Lee: The Circus Freak

by huhyouexist



Series: Love Is Uncertain [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Azula's A Good Girlfriend, Bisexual Ty Lee (Avatar), Bullying, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/F, Fluff, High School, Hurt/Comfort, Lapses, Lesbian Azula (Avatar), Manipulation, Recovery, Slice of Life, They Can Still Bend, Ty Lee Struggles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:08:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 26,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29588400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/huhyouexist/pseuds/huhyouexist
Summary: Ty Lee, while fawned over by many at school, hasn't always had the easiest life. While navigating a relationship with her girlfriend Azula, she'll have to face many sides of herself that she never thought she'd see. Will Ty Lee and Azula's love hold through? Or will it tear them apart?The Sequel To Azula: The Prodigy With Blue Fire
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar), Mai/Yue (Avatar), Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar)
Series: Love Is Uncertain [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2157612
Comments: 33
Kudos: 140





	1. Prologue

A hand takes hers. It’s warm, and safe. Like coming home to your bed after an excruciating day at work.

Ty Lee looks up, and see’s the corners of a mouth turn upwards into a familiar smirk. Her eyes are fuzzy, but she knows it’s Azula. It wouldn’t be anyone else.

They're on the street, and it’s cold, but Ty Lee is warmed by her girlfriend's presence. The natural heat she gives off, like her own personal furnace, was blissful. She could have fallen asleep standing right there if she had shut her eyes.

Azula breaks away, only to take a seat on the blue-flame designed motorcycle she had become so familiar with. 

_ “Coming?” _

Ty Lee smiles. 

_ “Always.” _

She hops on behind her, but her vision blurs, if for just a moment. Suddenly, she’s in the school gymnasium, music blasting in her ears as she sits in a chair, cup in hand. She looks in it, and notices the liquid she can’t identify due to the red lighting of the room. She assumes it’s punch. 

_ “Wanna dance?” _

Ty Lee knows that voice, and looking up she indeed finds Azula waiting there. Her blue dress complimented her tattoos so well, Ty Lee admiring the details etched into the fabric, even if they fogged a bit. Probably the lighting.

Ty Lee takes her hand, eager to dance with the girl she loves. Azula pulls her in swiftly, and Ty Lee yelps as her chest meets Azula’s. Suddenly, they are in the middle of the dance floor, already in sync to the music as they sway slightly. 

_ “You look beautiful, as always.” _ Azula compliments. Bashful, Ty Lee thanks her, and together they dance the night away. 

Towards the end of a song, Ty Lee mesmerized by Azula’s hazel eyes that shined against its red glimmer, Azula leans into Ty Lee’s ear and whispers something.

Ty Lee can’t hear what she says.

-

Bundled under plush layers of comforters and blankets, Ty Lee peaks an eye open to see Azula’s back to her. The sun gleamed in through the window, casting golden rays of light along the floor and giving the room a warm aura.

It was just a dream.

Ty Lee sighs. It had been one she’d been having a lot lately. It was always the same sequence, but Ty Lee never realizes it until it's too late. Until it’s gone.

She desperately wants a do-over. To prove to herself that things had changed from that point in time. So that they could finally move past that era of their lives. She needed it. She craved it.

But Ty Lee doesn’t care about any of that right now. She only cares about the girl in front of her, still blissfully asleep.

A smile creeping onto her lips, Ty Lee reaches out a careful hand to press against Azula’s back, immediately noticing the warm temperature of her skin. Gently, and ever so slowly, she grazes a thumb over the blacks and blues of Azula’s back, outlined so as to create the mighty dragon resting upon her shoulder blades. She follows its back, finding she is more than content to just lay her and trace every line and pattern of the tattoo until Azula is shifting in her sleep.

She notices faint scratch marks along Azula’s black, in the shape of her blunt nails, and her cheeks  _ burn _ .

Sex was not something that someone picked up on quickly. It was difficult because everyone had their likes and dislikes, and their partner had to take that into account. 

But hell, Azula picked up on hers quicker than should’ve been possible.

They started slow, just like Ty Lee had promised her, but with every touch, Azula was emboldened. Every kiss unravelled Ty Lee more and more until she was literal putty and Azula could read her like a book. She experimented, always asking for permission of course, with what would make Ty Lee gasp and what would make her scream.

Oh. She was just now noticing her throat was a little sore. Her body too.

“Ty?” Azula mumbles, voice heavy with sleep as she peaks her head over her shoulder. “What are you doing?”

Busted.

“Nothing.” Ty Lee replies quietly, composing herself but not stopping her ministrations. “Just enjoying the view.”

Azula flips around, now facing Ty Lee. “It’s a little early for you, isn’t it?”

“Couldn’t fall back asleep.” She mumbles, moving in so that she could wrap her arms around Azula. Ty Lee is quick to realize just how much she enjoyed the skin to skin contact.

There’s silence for a bit, both of them content to hold the other for a while and enjoy their presence. It was relaxing, and relieving in a way. 

“So last night was...fun.” Azula mumbles.

Ty Lee’s cheeks burn recalling the events of her birthday. “Y-Yeah.” She squeaks, not quite sure what to say.

“That didn’t sound very convincing.” Azula laughs, but Ty Lee immediately picks up on the worried tone behind it. 

“N-No!” She exclaims, wanting anything  _ but  _ that as she pulls away to see Azula. “Last night was  _ amazing _ .  _ Perfect _ .”

“Good, that’s…” Azula trails, looking away in embarrassment. “That’s good…”

Ty Lee giggles. “You’re so cute…” She coos, reaching her hands up to hold Azula’s head.

“Don’t push it.” Azula grumbles.

Ty Lee’s giggles turn into a full laugh.

After she calms down, she wipes a stray tear from her eye, catching Azula’s loving smile but saying nothing of it. She’s embarrassed her enough for one morning. “So got any plans?”

Azula shakes her head. “Do you?”

“I kinda wanna do something with the others.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know.” Ty Lee says, thinking about it a moment before saying, “What about a movie?”

Azula rolls over and grabs her phone, opening it and scrolling to her browser. “What’s playing right now?”

Ty Lee doesn’t say anything, merely gives her a hum that says  _ ‘I dunno’ _ .

“Let’s see...Back To The Future, The Notebook, Croods 2, Wonder Woman 84, The Little Things-”

“Ooh! What’s that one?” Ty Lee exclaims, clicking on the movie poster from her spot. Azula glares at her, but she merely gives her a toothy smile. 

With a sight, Azula begins to read the small description they provide. “A burned-out deputy sheriff teams up with a crack LASD detective to reel in a wily serial killer.” Ty Lee watches Azula raise an eyebrow. “This actually doesn’t look too bad.”

Ty Lee frowns, not liking its grotesque nature. “I don’t like it. I thought it was gonna be a romance.”

“If you wanted a romance you should’ve picked The Notebook.” Azula comets, scrolling down to see how much tickets were.

“I’ve already seen that though!” Ty Lee whines, tugging at Azula’s shirt. “Pick something else.”

“Why don’t we ask the crowd?”

Ty Lee watches Azula open her messages to a group chat with everyone in it, which she had made her girlfriend join with much reluctance.

_ ‘Ty Lee wants to see a movie. Anyone interested in seeing The Little Things?’ _ It read.

Ty Lee waits, eager to see their responses. It takes them a minute or two, but eventually, they start to filter in.

_ ‘Sounds fun.’ _ Katara says.

_ ‘I’ll throw popcorn at you guys.’ _ Toph’s response reads, and she hears Azula snort.

_ ‘Oh yeah! I’ve been wanting to see this for a while!’ _ Sokka sends.

_ ‘I’m down :)’ _ Says Suki.

_ ‘When are we meeting?’ _ Aang replies.

Ty Lee quickly notices that Azula is looking at her, and picks up on her victorious smirk. Ty Lee huffs, and swipes the phone away from here, typing out,  _ ‘Does 1 work for everyone?’ _

She receives 5 variations of affirmations, and Ty Lee swipes over to Azula, Mai, Zuko, and hers private chat.

_ ‘Movie at 1, The Little Things. You guys wanna go? -TL’ _

_ ‘Are the others coming?’ _ Was Mai’s quick response.

_ ‘Yup.’ _ Ty Lee answers.

_ ‘Sure. Can Azula come help me wake up Zuko?’ _

“She most certainly can.” Azula laughs, throwing the covers away and jumping out of bed. Ty Lee watches her girlfriend with a hyperfixed fascination as she throws on some clothes. Ty Lee always knew it, but Azula’s body was really perfect in every sense of the word. Everything from the defined muscles of her back and arms to the curve of her hips looked as if it was sculpted by Agni himself.

She watches her leave the room before shaking herself out of her thoughts and returning back to Azula’s phone.

_ ‘She’s on her way.’ _

_ ‘Thanks.’ _

The conversation finished, Ty Lee swipes out of messages, and with nothing better to do, peruses her girlfriend's phone. She wasn’t being nosy; she trusted Azula more than anyone else in her life, she just wanted to see what the girl had since she didn’t really know. 

_ Of course Azula’s phone is this organized _ , Ty Lee thinks.

Everything from school to restaurant apps were categorized and put into groups, all neatly labeled and easy to read. There were only a few major ones that she needed quick access to, like messages, photos, camera; stuff like that that weren’t set into groups.

Ty Lee beams when she finally realizes her home screen was a picture of her and Azula at school.

She remembers this day, it was the first football game of the season, and Ty Lee was clad in her cheer captain uniform. It was a very well captured photo on Suki’s part, with Azula picking her up mid air, Ty Lee’s smile evident above Azula’s loving stare.

Ty Lee wondered what Azula had to do to get it from Suki, and if she got teased for it.

Deciding she needed to get up too, Ty Lee makes her way out of the room, throwing on Azula’s white sweatshirt and some shorts before making her way down the halls to where she knew Zuko’s room to be. When she reached it, she could hear the laughter emanating from inside.

Opening the door, Ty Lee is welcomed by the sight of Zuko face down on the floor, covers draped over him as Mai and Azula laughed their asses off.

Ty Lee starts to giggle too, asking, “What did you two do?”

“Oh you know,” Azula starts between laughs. “A little fire here, some knives there.”

Ty Lee can fill in the rest, and with a sigh says, “Well at least he’s up, and unharmed.”

“I hate all of you.” Zuko grumbles, getting up from his humiliating position and stretching his limbs. “Mai said we were going to see a movie or something. That true?”

“Mhm!” Ty Lee hums cheerfully. “I wanna do something fun with everyone before the weekend ends.”

“We just saw them yesterday.” Mai blunts. “For the entire afternoon.”

Ty Lee sticks her tongue out, not pleased with Mai’s boring remark. “Well  _ I _ wanna see a movie, so it’s only natural everyone else should come.”

Mai looks at Azula, who merely raises an eyebrow.

“What are you looking at me for? It was her idea.”

“I’ll talk to you later.” Mai sighs, leaving Azula confused. “Lets get some breakfast.”

-

Later, after some breakfast and lounging about, Ty Lee was changing into some nicer clothes. They were leaving soon, as it was about a half hour until the movie started, so she was putting the final touches on her outfit. 

One of which being the necklace Azula had given her.

Part of her wanted to suffocate Azula under a pillow while the other wanted to smother her with love for getting her such a present. It was by far the most expensive and heartwarming gift Ty Lee has ever received, and even if Azula said she didn’t care about how much it cost, Ty Lee did. 

She wanted Azula to know she didn’t need fancy things like this to be happy with her, but Azula seemed adamant about this one.

Azula  _ did  _ say there was meaning behind it, so she’d let it slide.

Plus, the piece was absolutely  _ gorgeous _ . Azula definitely knew what she liked.

“Lee?” Azula says upon entering the room. Ty Lee turns to look at her. “We’re leaving soon, are you almost ready?”

“Yeah, just about.” She chirps, moving her hands to do the braid along her already put up hair. 

Ty Lee catches Azula watching her from the doorway, leaning against one side with her arms crossed. “I don’t know how you do that every day.”

“Do what?” Ty Lee laughs, tying the end so that it stays how it is.

“The braid.” Was Azula’s answer. “It would take me forever, but you do it in less than a minute flat.”

“Do you even know how to braid hair?” Ty Lee teases, walking over to her girlfriend.

She sees a tinge of pink along Azula’s cheek. “Of course I do!”

“Mhm.” Ty Lee hums, not at all convinced. She passes her, swiping a hand across Azula’s cheek slowly as she whispers, “Maybe I’ll teach you sometime.”

Azula catches her hand before it leaves, and brings it down so she can interlock it with her own. “Who says I needed to be taught?” 

“That cute little blush you’re sporting, that’s who.” Ty Lee grins, pleased with how that blush deepens.

Azula huffs, looking away. “Whatever. Come on.”

Laughing as she is pulled along by Azula, she sets her pace next to the girl. Content to not bring it back up, she allows Azula to lead her to the garage, where a pristine bike eagerly awaited them.

-

Azula’s house wasn’t far from the theater, but it wasn’t a short drive either. Ty Lee didn’t care, it gave her more time to hold onto Azula’s figure while also praying they didn’t swerve off the road. She trusted Azula,  _ not _ the bike, even if she did enjoy the rides immensely.

Reaching the theater, Ty Lee can already see the gaang waiting outside for them. Zuko and Mai aren’t far behind, parking in the empty space next to Azula’s bike just as they take off their helmets. 

“Hey guys!” Ty Lee cheers, waving at Aang and his friends as they reach them.

“Hey Ty.” Suki greets, and they share a hug. Ty Lee’s always enjoyed Suki’s hugs. “How was the rest of your birthday?”

Ty Lee tries her best to keep herself composed as she breaks away. She trusts herself only to send Suki a smile. “Great! I’ll tell you all about it later.”

Suki doesn’t look convinced, but Ty Lee just nods her head, as if silently trying to say,  _ ‘Please go along with this _ ’.

Her eyes widen when she realizes what Ty Lee meant.

“ _ Oh _ .” Suki lets out involuntarily, before recovering with, “Alright, I can’t wait.”

With that out of the way, Ty Lee claps her hand. “Let’s go see a movie!”

After paying for tickets, they all get their respected snack and drinks and make their way into the theater. Staying in the general vicinity of each other, the couples and groups break off into respective divisions, wanting to be near the others but have some privacy to talk during the movie. Ty Lee and Azula are no different, sitting just a chairs width from Mai and Zuko on Ty Lee’s side. Katara and Aang sit in front of them, a row down, while Sokka, Suki, and Toph sit together next to them. A similar manner to Ty Lee and Azula.

Halfway through, ans Ty Lee is gripping onto Azula’s hand for dear life. She’s never been fond of thrillers and horrors, so this wasn’t her cup of tea, but Azula seemed to be enjoying it, so she stayed quiet.

“Do you want to take a break?” Azula whispers.

Confused, Ty Lee asks, “What?”

“My hand is going numb, and you look like you’re about to jump out of your seat. Do you want to head out for a bit?”

Ty Lee looks down, and see’s Azula’s hand turning a different shade than the skin on her wrist. Immediately relieving the pressure, Azula flexes her fingers, glad for the breathing room.

“You’re enjoying the movie.” Ty Lee smiles, albeit weakly. “I don’t want you to miss any of it.”

“I’d miss the entire movie if you asked me to. I couldn’t care less.” Azula replies without hesitation.

Ty Lee is glad for the dark atmosphere, otherwise the blush creeping onto her cheeks would be canon fodder for weeks. “I’ll be fine. It’s just a movie.” She answers quietly.

“Are you sure?”

Ty Lee nods, and Azula, not convinced but not going to fight her on it, returns her attention to the movie.

The rest of the film goes about how one would expect it, with Ty Lee gripping Azula’s hand tightly, Azula giving her a sign that she was cutting off her circulation, and Ty Lee apologizing before proceeding to do it again. Seeing as the movie was a thriller, there weren't really any jumpscares per se, but it was enough to have Ty Lee’s heart pounding so hard she could hear it in her ears. Though, things probably would have gone a lot worse if Azula wasn’t there to get her through it. Every now and then she’d lean over and say something to make the brunette giggle and forget why she was scared in the first place.

Azula always knew how to make her laugh, even with her harsher sense of comedy. Mai and Azula shared that trait. 

The credits role, and everyone is heading out of the theater once they give themselves a chance to stretch their limbs. On the way out, they all take their time to discuss the movie and laugh about certain parts they found funny or scold the scenes they didn’t like. Ty Lee said it wasn’t too bad, but Azula smirked and called her out, saying “She’s lying. My hand nearly popped off of my wrist.”

They all laughed at Ty Lee’s embarrassed blush, but it was all in good fun.

Eventually the time came to leave, and Ty Lee said farewell to her friends, waving to them as Azula started her bike.

“Are you sure you want to go home?” Azula asks, putting on her helmet but leaving her visor up so Ty Lee could see her eyes.

Ty Lee sighs. “No, but I haven’t been back in a while, and if I don't my parents will get suspicious.”

“Of what?” Azula laughs. “They already know about us.”

“I know, but I still need to go home at  _ some  _ point.” 

Ty Lee hears Azula sighs. “Whatever you want darling, but personally I think you should just stay.”

“Oh? And why’s that.” She teases, gripping Azula’s waist as she sits down.

“Because then I can have you all to myself.” Was Azula’s answer, and flips down her visor, taking off down the road.

Ty Lee can’t wipe the smile off her face the entire way to her house, and even when Azula pulls onto the side of her house and lets her get off, it doesn’t vanish.

“So I’ll see you at school tomorrow?” Ty Lee asks, handing Azula the helmet. She takes it and locks it onto the back of her bike.

“Before first period, like always.” Azula gives her a smile.

“Okay.” Ty Lee whispers, smiling as she leans down to give Azula a kiss. When she pulls away, she whispers, “I love you.”

“I appreciate it.” Azula teases, and Ty Lee scoffs, slapping her shoulder harshly. 

“Say it back!” She exclaims with a giggle.

Azula chuckles, getting off her bike and kissing Ty Lee once more, pulling her flush against her body. Ty Lee melts into it, arms immediately sinking into the fire bender’s hair and pulling her closer.

“I love you too, Lee.” Azula breathes when she pulls away. 

Ty Lee smiles. “Much better.”

“See you tomorrow.” Azula says, pulling away and letting Ty Lee start to walk back to her house.

Ty Lee waves her goodbye, and notices Azula waiting until she shut the door to start back off down the road. Turning back to her house, she takes her shoes off by the door.

“I’m home.” She calls, hearing the faint sound of the cheering coming from the sitting room.

“Ty Lum? Is that you?”

Ty Lee sighs, heading to the living room connected to the kitchen. That’s got to be a new record.

“It’s Ty Lee, Dad.” She says, not quite angry but not happy about it either.

“Right right.” He dismisses, waving her off without breaking his attention from the football game on the screen. “How’s your painting coming along?”

“Ty Lee does cheer, Pops. I’m the painter.” Ty Lao says, emerging from upstairs. She gives Ty Lee an apologetic look, and Ty Lee gives her one right back before she heads to the fridge, opening it and taking out an apple.

“Oh dears. You shouldn’t be so harsh on your Father.” Ty Lee’s Mom, Kori, lightly scolds.

“We know.” Ty Lee and Ty Lao say in unison.

Kori blinks at her daughters before saying, “Ty Lee, didn’t you go to the movies?”

Ty Lee is surprised her Mom was able to remember that. “Yeah.”

“How was it? Did you take some friends?”

Ty Lee shrugs. “It was fine. A little scary, though everyone else seemed fine.”

“Scaredy cat!” Ty Lao exclaims, and Ty Lee turns to her, scoffing as she chases her sister up the stairs.

“Get back here!” She laughs, reaching her sister just as they entered her room

Both stumbled onto the bed giggling, and Ty Lee, who’s eyes were once closed, opened and saw the hand painted mural on the ceiling.

She’s always loved Ty Lao’s room. Everything was so vibrant and filled with color. Paintings lined the walls and anywhere they could be seen. Some were even decorated around the house because their parents liked it so much. 

Directed her attention to her newest piece, Ty Lee gasps and flings herself off the bed to admit it up close. “Did you just make this?”

Hearing the faint sound of Taylor Swift in the background, Ty Lao comes over to her, humming as confirmation. “Yeah. I think I’m gonna call it  _ ‘Resonance’ _ .”

“I love it.”

“You always love them.” Ty Lao scoffs. “I think it needs something. I’m not happy with it yet.”

“You’re the artist!” Ty Lee chirps. 

“How’s cheer going?”

Ty Lee sighs. “Some of the girls are new, so it’s been difficult, but we’ll get there.”

“I hope so.” Ty Lao mumbles, before grabbing a paintbrush and threatening flicking it in Ty lee’s direction. “Now shoo so I can finish this.”

Ty Lee squeaks, and is quick to leave, not wanting to get paint on her clothes. That had happened once with some of Ty Lao’s acrylic paints. Needless to say, her shirt was ruined.

Heading to her own room, which was down at the very end of the hall, she opens it and heads inside. She nearly screams when she sees another person inside. Her body settles for a jump, but once she sees who had been waiting for her, her chirpy nature immediately dissipates.

Ty Lin gives her a smirk, examining the ring from Ty Lee’s jewelry box before slipping it onto her finger. She lets her hands fall to her hips.

“Hey sis, how’s it hanging?”


	2. A Single Lie

“What are you doing in my room, Ty Lin?” She asks, crossing her arms. It was rhetorical, and they both knew it, but Ty Lee still held out hope that one of these days, things might change between them.

The brunette, hair styled in exactly the same way as Ty Lee’s, pushes herself forward with the shrug of her shoulders. “Just wanted to see how the circus freak was doing. Have a good time on your  _ date _ ?”

Ty Lee purses her lips, ignoring the shot to heart and instead saying, “Yeah, it was a lot of fun.”

“How cute.” Ty Lin coos, circling her like a vulture. Ty Lee could see how black Ty Lin’s aura was, only growing around her fading pink as she stopped in front of Ty Lee. “I need that bracelet of yours. You know, the one with the turtle.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think? Idiot.” Ty Lin laughs, proceeds to go through one of Ty Lee’s drawers. Quietly sucking in a breath, Ty Lee prays she doesn’t go one down. “Oh, and I need the outfit that matches it.”

“Go wear your own clothes, Ty Lin. Stop wearing mine.” Ty Lee says, shutting the drawer on Ty Lin before her hand can go back in.

Ty Lin’s eyes narrow threateningly. “I’ll wear what I want to,  _ sis _ .” She spits, leaning into her face and striking a paralyzing chord in Ty Lee. “And right now, I want to wear  _ your  _ turtle bracelet and matching outfit.”

With a gulp, Ty Lee whispers, “Far right of the closet. The bracelet is in the jacket pocket.”

Ty Lin backs off with a huff, making her way over and opening her closet. “Trying to hide things from me?”

_ Yes. _

“That’s awfully rude.” Ty Lin continues without expecting an answer.

Ty Lee grips the edges of her shirt. Those were hers, not Ty Lin’s. “They're my clothes. I can put them wherever I want.”

Pausing in the middle of her rummaging, Ty Lin looks back at her, gazing upon Ty Lee’s feeble position and laughing at it. “You're so weak. What does she even see in you?”

_ Someone she loves _ , Ty Lee thinks, but doesn’t say.

At last, Ty Lin finds what she’s looking for, taking the outfit out and checking the pocket, finding the bracelet there. She tosses it up slightly before catching it immediately after. She gives Ty Lee a beaming smile. “Thanks, sis!” 

Ty Lin leaves the room, and Ty Lee hates how much that smile reminded her of her own.

It had always been like this between them. Ever since she’d met Azula and started gaining her individuality away from her sisters, Ty Lin had thrown every insult to try and stop that from happening. It was like she made it her personal vendetta to try and make Ty Lee’s life a living hell so long as she walked this planet.

Things changed though, around the start of her Junior year.

For whatever reason, Ty Lin started stealing her clothes, copying her hairstyle, and even picking up her personality. It was like she was trying to be Ty Lee, and Ty Lee couldn’t figure out why she was doing it. At first, she thought it was just another way for Ty Lee to hurt her and take away the things that made her Ty Lee, but this was excessive. 

She had a reason, but gave no inclination as to what it was.

With a sigh, she falls onto her bed, phone plopping down just next to her face.

Maybe she  _ should’ve  _ stayed at Azula’s.

Her phone buzzes.

Picking it up, she see’s Suki’s name glaring back at her. Suki was calling her. She slides her thumb along the bottom of the screen, accepting Suki’s call and putting it to her ear. “Suki?”

“Tell me  _ everything _ .” Was her immediate response.

Her cheeks flare, remembering what she had said to Suki before the movies. “Suki! What if I was with her?!”

“Buy you’re not, are you?” She replies, a hint of smugness in her voice. “Go on! I want to hear all about it. Was she good?”

Ty Lee groans, not being able to fight the blush on her cheeks. “Of course she was, Suki…”

“Don’t be biased! Just because she’s your girlfriend doesn’t mean she was good!”

“This is so embarrassing.” Ty Lee mumbles, more to herself than Suki.

“You signed yourself up for it when you gave me that look. What? Get too caught up in the moment?”

“I didn’t think you’d be this excited about it!” Ty Lee retorts.

“You had sex with Azula! Capitol ‘A’, Azula! I want to know if that prodigal standard holds up in bed too!”

“Oh my god.” Ty Lee chortles, rolling over onto her stomach. “I can’t do this. Bye Suki.”

“Wait-!”

Ty Lee hangs up laughing. That was a conversation she was not ready to have, and she was an idiot to give Suki any indication of it.

Oh well, she’d deal with it later.

-

After about two hours worth of studying, Ty Lee deemed herself semi-decently prepared for her Pre-Calculus test tomorrow, and went back to her phone. She ignored Suki’s barrage of texts, and instead occupied her time watching youtube videos on whatever her suggested gave her. She had nothing better to do since Azula was in therapy and Mai was working.

About a month ago, Mai had gotten very involved with her family's flower show, and explained at some point that she was thinking of looking into majoring in sustainable agriculture or agronomy. Ty Lee didn’t know what any of that meant even though Mai tried to explain it to her, but fully supported whatever decision she made.

Ty Lee respected her confidence. She had no clue what she wanted to be.

Everyone seemed to have their life planned out. Azula would probably end up working with her brother at the company, Mai would do something with plants or business, and the others seemed to have a general sense of a career path. But Ty Lee?

Chi blocking and doing flips can’t really count as job worthy qualities.

So what  _ did  _ she want to be?

Her phone buzzes in her hand, making Ty Lee jump out of her thoughts and tap the message. It brings her to Azula and her private chat.

_ ‘So something strange just happened.’ _

Interest piqued, Ty Lee types back,  _ ‘Good or bad?’ _

_ ‘I can’t tell yet. She’s kind of a wild card.’ _

_ She? _

Ty Lee narrows her eyes.  _ ‘Aren’t you supposed to be with Dr. Glenn?’ _

_ ‘I just got out. Apparently this girl is the patient in the room across from me. We got out at the same time.’ _

_ ‘What’s her name?’ _

_ ‘Zirin, and I think she wanted to be friends.’ _

Ty Lee knew a lot of people, but that was a name she had never heard of before. Not giving herself time to think, Ty Lee hits the call button just under Azula’s name. It takes one ring before Azula picks up.

“What is it?” Said Azula.

“I’ve never heard of her.”

“Well of course not. You can’t possibly know everyone in this big city, Lee.” She laughs.

Skeptical, Ty Lee says. “What’s she in therapy for?”

“I didn’t ask her that. It’s rude.”

Ty Lee didn’t think about that. She supposes it would be rude if you didn’t know if the person was okay with talking about that stuff or not. “Right. Sorry.” She apologizes.

“It’s alright.” Azula reassures. “Anyway, she gave me her number-”

“What?” Ty Lee interrupts, an immediate spike of jealousy forming inside her.

Azula pauses, and Ty Lee assumes she’s processing Ty Lee’s passive aggressive response. Shit.

“Ty Lee,” Azula starts slowly. “Are you  _ jealous _ ?”

“What-!” She sputters indignantly. “No!” 

“Really? Cause it sounds an awful lot like you are.” Azula continues.

“I’m not! It’s just, she met you today and already gave you her number?”

“Like I said. It was strange.”

Ty Lee is silent. Right. Azula  _ had  _ said it was strange.

“...Are you gonna call her?”

Azula audibly sighs. “I don’t know. She seems fun, but a wild card. There’s no telling what she could be up to.”

That was true, and while Ty Lee did want Azula to make some friends that she actually liked other than Mai and her, she didn’t want her getting mixed in with a bad crowd again. She trusted Azula, but with one strong push, it was possible she could lean back into that side of herself.

“If I did call her, would that upset you?”

Ty Lee curls into herself. She hates that part of her wants to say yes, it would. However, she sucks in a quiet breath and instead says, “No, but just be careful, okay?”

“It’s a phone call, Lee.” Azula laughs. “No one’s gonna die.”

“Right.” Ty Lee mumbles distantly.

“Ty Lee! Dinner!” One of her sisters calls from outside her room. 

She throws a glance over her shoulder and yells, “Okay! Coming!” before turning back to her phone and saying, “I gotta go, talk to you later?”

“Alright.”

Ty Lee hangs up, plugging her phone into the charger and heading out to where her family would be waiting with dinner. Ty Lee didn’t trust this Zirin character, but only time could tell if it would really be a problem. For now, she’d keep an open mind, and let Azula make some friends. 

She passes by Ty Lin’s room, the door cracked open ever so slightly. From her spot in the hall, Ty Lee could see her sister wearing her outfit, admiring herself in the mirror.

She looked exactly like her.

Knowing she wouldn’t care to join the rest of the family, Ty Lee leaves Ty Lin to her own devices, and heads downstairs.

-

“I knew Azula was extra, but this is too much. Even for her.” Suki says, examining the necklace chained around Ty Lee’s neck.

“That’s what I told her!” Ty Lee laughs. “She said the cost didn’t matter, but  _ look  _ at it.”

“It’s definitely something.” She comments, releasing her hand and letting them rest on the table with a sly smirk. “So you never answered my question yesterday.”

Ty Lee blushes a bright red, and leans in closer to the girl. “Suki, we’re in the library!” She whispers harshly.

“That’s obvious. It’s also obvious that we’re in the back, hidden by an entire bookshelf with no one in the vicinity.  _ Tell me _ what happened!”

Ty Lee lets her forehead hit the table with a thunk. 

“Agni help me…”

“Ty, this is only awkward cause you’re making it awkward. I’d gladly tell you about how bad Sokka was our-!”   
  


“ _ Please _ shut up, Suki.” Ty Lee groans. “I do not want to hear about you and Sokka having sex.”

“My  _ point  _ is,” Suki redirects. “You can talk to me about this stuff. I’m not gonna embarrass you or anything.”

“You totally would. In fact, you are right now.”

“That is not the point.” Suki chortles.

“That’s exactly the point!” Ty Lee exclaims, her head shooting up. “What do you want me to say?!”

“Shhhh!” A voice calls, and Ty Lee jumps when she sees the librarian, the only other person here at the moment, stick her head around the bookshelf. “Just because you are the only two here doesn’t mean you can goof around! There are rules!”

“Sorry Mrs. Ichika.” Ty Lee mumbles, and the librarian huffs before turning and walking away. Once, she is out of earshot, Suki continues.

“Ty, please. Nothing interesting is going on except for your love life.”

“That is so sad coming from you.” Ty lee mumbles.

“I’m going to ignore that.” Suki states. “C’mon, I know you wanna tell me.”

Ty Lee huffs, but relents, dropping her head to rest on the table in between her crossed arms. “She was amazing once she figured out what she was doing. There, happy?”

“So she was clueless?”

“Not clueless, she just hadn’t actually done it before. Neither had I…”

Suki is clearly staring at her, analyzing her embarrassed and shy posture and saying, “Was she gentle?”

Ty Lee smiles, lowering her head into her arms to hide it. “She was perfect.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

Ty Lee tilts her head towards her friend, noticing her skeptical eyes and stiff posture. It was clear she was making sure Azula was being good to her. With a sigh, Ty Lee returns her attention to it’s previous direction. 

“She asked if it was okay before she did anything and her hands were literally trembling, Suki. Stop being so protective.”

“I know, I know.” Suki says. “But we still worry, you know?”

Ty Lee doesn’t say anything. Hadn’t Azula proven herself enough? It had been months, and none of them were completely on Azula’s side. They questioned her any time they got the slightest hint of there being abuse in their relationship. Ty Lee could try and play it off as them being protective all she wanted, but sooner or later they would have to see the truth.

Azula loves her. Enough to change and become a better person.

“I know.” Ty Lee sighs, standing up with backpack in hand. “Free period’s almost over. I’m going to meet Azula before English. See you at cheer?”

“Yeah.” Suki agrees, and Ty Lee takes that as her window to leave.

As she passed through halls and corridors, the only sounds being that of her shoes, Ty Lee wondered about her sister.

She hadn’t seen her today, but Ty Lee can assume she’s wearing her outfit. Whenever Ty Lin took her things, they usually didn’t come back to her. On rare instances, a ring or hoodie would make its way back to her, but nothing in full.

That’s just how she was. She takes and takes and takes from Ty Lee, and never gives anything back.

“Hey Azula!” 

Ty Lee’s eyes shoot up, and she suddenly sees her girlfriend, and a girl who looks just like her.

Even from a distance, she can see the turtle bracelet and matching outfit. 

“Hello Lee-” Azula greets, and Ty Lee feels a knife stab straight through her heart.

_ That’s not me, Azula. Can you really not tell that’s me? _

“-Wait.” Azula says seconds later, drawing a curious glance from both sisters, though one is still hidden away out of view. “You’re not Ty Lee.”

Azula’s eyes scan the halls, and almost immediately lands on her eyes with a smile. “There you are.”

Without even so much as a second glance, Azula turns to walk towards Ty Lee, and with every step Ty Lee can feel the weights of her doubt being lifted away from her body.

“Sorry about that.” Azula apologizes when she reaches her. “The outfit threw me off. Isn’t it yours?”

Ty Lee turns her attention to Ty Lin, who is fuming from her spot in the distance. With an aggravated huff, she turns and stomps out of view.

Shaking her head at her sister's awful antics, Ty Lee says, “Yeah, we…we share sometimes.”

“Ah.” Azula realizes. “Alright then. Shall we get going?”

“How did you know that wasn’t me?”

Her question is abrupt, and uncalled for, and Ty Lee immediately regrets it after, but she doesn’t apologize nore try to redirect it. She was curious, because even though Ty Lin looked every bit the part of her, Azula still knew. Somehow, she knew Ty Lin wasn’t her girlfriend.

Azula laughs. “Is that a joke? Of course I knew it wasn’t you.”

“But...How?” Ty Lee repeats. “She looks just like me.”

“That doesn’t mean she was you, Lee.” Azula insists. “I can see a fake smile from miles away.”

“Fake?” Ty Lee asks. “She was faking it?”

“Of course. Even  _ you  _ aren’t that smiley.”

“...Really?” 

Azula stops, and looks at Ty Lee, clearly concerned.

“Lee, is everything alright?”

Azula could tell the difference just by a smile? Of course she could, she just proved that not a couple minutes ago.

So why did Ty Lee not believe her?

_ Stop, you can’t think that way. She loves you, not Ty Lin. _

Ty Lee gives her a bright smile. “Totally!”

“...If you say so.” Azula says, and holds out her hand. “So, how has your day been?”

She takes it, eyes lighting up. “You would not believe what Suki asked me about!”

“Really now?”

“Yeah! She kept asking about last night!”

“Then I guess her and Mai had the same idea. I got grilled on it after breakfast yesterday.” Azula laughs, recalling her own memories. 

Ty Lee blushes. “Y-You told Mai?”

“No, but apparently it was written all over your face.”

Her hand squeezes Azula’s in embarrassment.

Chuckling, Azula squeezes back. “Don’t be like that. If anything, it’s nice to know Mai is looking out for you.”

“For  _ us _ .” Ty Lee corrects immediately. “She cares about you too, you know.”

With a smirk, Azula says, “Of course, Lee. The threats make it all too apparent.”

Despite herself, Ty Lee giggles, a spring in her step as they walked down the halls together.

Ty Lin could try anything she wanted, but Azula would still know who the real Ty Lee is. No matter what, Azula chose her. Out of her six identical sisters, Azula chose the seventh.

The insignificant circus freak.

“By the way,” Azula starts, grabbing Ty Lee’s attention with a hum. “You’re still okay with me calling you that, right?”

_ Yes _ , Ty lee thinks.  _ In fact, I never want you to stop. _

“Of course I am silly! If i wasn’t, I would’ve said something!” Ty Lee beams, keeping her eyes ahead and cheerful.

“Promise?”   
  


Ty Lee pauses, her steps coming to a halt just moments after Azula’s. Her eyes glance over her shoulder and find Azula’s uncharacteristically concerned gaze.

“Promise me, if anything is the matter, that you’ll come to me.” Azula says, unflinching sternness in her voice. “I don’t care if it’s the smallest, most insignificant problem you have. Talk to me about it, okay?”

Turning fully towards Azula, Ty Lee giggles. “What’s with you? Acting all serious-”

“Promise me.” Azula interrupts.

Stunned, Ty Lee can only stand and listen.

“You never let me stay quiet about my feelings. Even if you can’t tell me right away, just let me know if something’s happening so I can try to help. I don’t want you to feel alone. Not like I did.”

Ty Lee surveys her girlfriend, only finding sincerity in her eyes. Azula truly meant this, even if she wasn’t ready to take on the supporting role, Azula was willing to try. For her.

But Ty Lee’s issues could be helped with a hug and a kiss. No one could fix them, not unless Ty Lee stood up to her sister. She didn’t want that though. Fighting back meant stooping down to Ty Lin’s level, and that was something vowed she wouldn’t do.

She promised herself she would be the bigger person.

She doesn’t need to burden Azula with that responsibility too.

With a genuine smile now resting on her lips, because her heart truly is warmed by Azula’s words, Ty Lee does the only thing she can do in this situation.

“Of course, Zula. I wouldn’t go to anyone else.”

She tells a single lie.


	3. A Sudden Obstacle

Ty Lee is roughly awoken the next morning. Someone had been shoving her around in her sleep, and while she tried to ignore them at first, eventually she rolled onto her back, opening her eyes and asking, “What?”

Ty Lin glowered down at her. “I need to copy your homework.”

Ty Lee huffs, shifting to face away from her sister. “Maybe you should try doing it yourself for once.” 

Without warning, Ty Lee’s covers that covered her body are roughly pulled off of her bed, and Ty Lee feels a foot against her back.

Ty Lin kicks her off the side of the bed.

Shrieking on the way down, Ty Lee hits the floor with a thunk. She hears her sister's mischievous laugh coming around the side of her bed.

“So much for that masterful sense of balance you brag about.” She taunts, and Ty Lee works her way onto her knees, wincing as she looks up at her sister. The black aura emanating off of her was like a shadow, determined to block out the sun completely. “Now get up, and get your homework.”

Pushing herself to her feet, Ty Lee walks past her sister, not making eye contact with her and opening her bag. She knew how her sister was treating her was wrong. She _knew_ that, but she didn’t want to fight her. If she fights her, then Ty Lin wins.

“Here.” Ty Lee says, holding out the homework for Ty Lin to snatch out of her hands. “Could you at least _try_ and learn the material?”

Scoffing, Ty Lin says, “Why would I do that when you’ve already answered it for me?”

Ty Lee sighs, watching Ty Lin leave her room, shutting the door loudly. 

It wasn’t always like this. Back when they were kids, before Ty Lee met Azula, the two of them were actually really close. When they were born, Ty Lin came out only 3 minutes after Ty Lee, and the two of them were completely identical. Even their weights were the same.

As children, it was fun having a twin that looked as close to Ty Lee as Ty Lin did. Sure, their parents could never tell the difference between any of them anyway, but Ty Lee and Ty Lin were especially difficult to differentiate. Their pranks were the best, and they could never get in trouble because their parents never knew which one to scold.

But when she grew up, and realized how lonely being part of a matched set was, she wanted individuality.

She put her hair up in ponytails while Ty Lin kept hers down. Soon she learned how to braid her hair to make herself even more different. She started wearing pink while Ty Lin wore purple.

She met Azula, who only knew Ty Lee, and liked her for it.

She liked being special like that, and when she came home not being noticed became almost unbearable. It made her sad, and terribly lonely.

That’s when it started, the comments about Ty Lee being weird.

It wasn’t anything like now. Ty Lin didn’t know anything more than the fact that she thought Ty Lee was mean, or how she was super weird. Back then, Ty Lee thinks her sister didn’t understand why Ty Lee wanted to be different. After all, their life before that had been fun, so why did Ty Lee want it to change?

Ty Lee supposes she grew up, and Ty Lin resented her for it.

As they aged, the comments got more sophisticated and insulting. They changed from being weird to being a freak. They insulted her special abilities as a chi blocker, and her need for attention.

And while Ty Lee wasn’t going to give up her individuality, she wanted to have her sister back. The one who would play pranks with her, who she could laugh with.

Maybe one day Ty Lin would realize this and quit it with all this. Maybe then they could be sisters like before.

For now though, she’d put up with it.

-

“You’ve never been in a candle store before?” Suki asks Ty Lee as they walk down the street. “Are you kidding?!”

The rest of the gaang are giving her similar looks of shock, and all Ty Lee could do was give a nervous smile.

“No…?” She answers.

“Oh we’ve gotta.” Katara says, pulling out her phone. “Where’s the nearest candle shop to here?”

“I think there’s one about a block away, right Aang?” Sokka says.

“How should I know?” Aang replies.

They were out on the town today. None of them had anything to do, so they figured they’d head into the city and see what there was to do. They’d gone to get ice cream, shopped a little, and now were walking around the city.

“There’s one just around the corner!” Katara exclaims. “Come on!” 

They make their way there, and after a minute Ty Lee is indeed standing in front of a candles shop.

“Why is this a priority again?”

“You’ll love it.” Suki boasts, taking Ty Lee’s hand and leading her inside behind everyone else.

As soon as they step inside, Ty Lee’s nose is invaded by thousands of different smells, and her eyes are filled with even more glass jars. They lined the shelves, tables, the viewing windows near the door. Anywhere she looked there was a candle for her to try.

“You can pick them up and see if you like the smell.” Suki instructs, picking one up in front of them. It’s labeled winter’s freeze. Suki pops off the top and takes a whiff. “See? You try.”

Suki thrusts the jar into her hands and Ty Lee, startled by the forceful action, hesitantly smells it. It wasn’t bad, but it’s not really something Ty Lee would put in her room.

“What do you think?” She asks.

Ty Lee shrugs, handing the jar bag. “Not my type of candle.”

“Okay, well I’m going to go browse. You’ll be okay?”

Ty Lee gives her a smile. “Of course!”

Suki waves, and turns away to start looking around. Ty Lee turns her direction to the other side of the store, and begins to walk around. She glances over all the different names. Some were simple, like spices or casually food smells. Other’s got more interpretive, like the one Suki had given her. 

Reaching the far end of the current shelf, Ty Lee sees a candle that catches her eyes. She picks it up, examining the sticker.

_Cinnamon_.

The top comes off with a small pop, and Ty Lee brings it up to her nose.

She immediately smiles.

It smelled like Azula.

“I can see you like that one.”

Ty Lee looks up to see Katara next to her with a smile. Ty Lee bites her lips, poorly concealing her smile and quietly whispering, “Yeah.”

Ty Lee knows Katara knows exactly what that look means, but she decides to spare Ty Lee the embarrassment. “Are you gonna buy it?”

She nods.

“I’m gonna buy this one. Wanna come with me?” Katara asks, holding up her own candle.

Ty Lee smiles and says, “Sure!”

Together, they get in line, chatting about Katara’s candle and why she was picking it. 

“It reminds me of home in the Water Tribe.” Was Katara’s answer, and Ty Lee thinks that’s beautiful.

Before she could say it though, Ty Lee’s phone rings.

Raising an eyebrow, she pulls it out and sees Zuko’s name written across the top. It was odd seeing his name, he normally never called unless something bad was happening. Upon this, Ty Lee begins to worry as she answers the call.

Katara gives her a concerned look, and Ty Lee shrugs.

“Zuko?” Ty Lee says. “Is something wrong?”

“Ty Lee!” He exclaims. “You’ve gotta get to the house. Azula’s freaking out and I have no idea what to do.” 

“Okay, slow down.” Ty Lee says. “Take a deep breath and tell me what’s going on.”

She hears the breath he takes, before his explanation begins. “I came home to see Azula screaming her head off in the hallways. At first it was a bunch of nonsense but once she realized I was there she ran screaming something about Ozai. I think...I think she’s hallucinating.”

Ty Lee inhales sharply. Glenn had warned about these. What did she call them? Lapses?

“I’ll be there as soon as I can Zuko.” She says, hanging up and turning to Katara. “I...I have to go. Can you buy this for me, I promise I’ll pay you back-”

“Don’t worry about it. Go.” Katara says quickly, taking the jar with a thumbs up.

“Thank you.” Ty Lee sighs in relief and turns to find Suki in the crowd. Making her way over to the girl. Pulling her aside, Ty Lee whispers, “How fast can you get me to Azula’s house?”

Suki pulls out the keys to her car. “However fast you need. What’s the rush?”

“I’ll explain on the way, come on.” Ty Lee says hastily, pulling the girl out of the shop and down to where they had parked their cars earlier.

-

One car ride, a confused explanation, and two very worried girls later, Ty lee is jumping out of Suki’s car.

“I’ll wait here!” Suki shouts from the driver's seat.

“Thanks!” Ty Lee replies, and heads inside.

The first thing she is greeted to the sight of Zuko pacing back in forth in the lobby. Upon her entrance, his head shoots up and his relief is immediate. 

“Thank god.” He sighs. “She ran to her room and locked herself in. I don’t know what to do.”

“How did this happen?” Ty Lee asks as they begin to move that way.

“I don’t know. One minute she’s watching a movie in the living room and the next she’s screaming about not doing her training properly.”

“Okay.” Ty Lee breathes, getting her thoughts in order. Her girlfriend was clearly not okay, and though she had no idea what was going on, she had to try and help in any way she could

Reaching the door to Azula’s room, Ty Lee distinctly notices that it’s quiet. Unsettlingly quiet.

“Here’s the spare key.” Zuko says, handing it to her. “I...Thank you. I know you were out with the others.”

“I’m not going to leave her alone.” Ty Lee insisted, her eyes filled with determination. “I can’t ignore her pain just because I’m out with friends.”

Zuko can only nod. “I’ll wait out here. Let me know if you need anything.”

With that, Ty Lee opens the door, stepping inside and shutting it behind her. When she turns around, she see’s Azula figure, curled up in the corner of her room. 

“I’m sorry...I’ll do better…”

Azula’s voice was hushed, muffled by her knees that covered her face. Ty Lee couldn’t help but notice how small she looked. It was bizarre. Usually her girlfriend seemed so proud, so confident, and to see her like this.

“I’ll make you proud, I swear. Just...Just give me more time. Please…”

More time? What was Azula talking about?

Was...Was she thinking about Ozai?

“Zula?” Ty Lee says, voice concerned as she slowly makes her way over to Azula.

Just as she spoke, Azula’s head shot up, as if she’d been splashed with cold water. “No!” She shrieks, eyes wide in blistering fear as she pushes herself further into the wall, if at all possible. “Not again! Please!”

“Azula, calm down. It’s me. Ty Lee.” She tries, voice slow with a gentle hand extended outward.

“Stop! Don’t! I promise I’ll be perfect!”

Ty Lee’s eyes widen. She must not be able to hear her.

Did Azula think she was Ozai?

“Please Father, I’ll do anything you ask.” Azula whimpers, composure breaking, face buried into her hands so as to not look at Ty Lee, or rather, Ozai.

Ty Lee’s heart breaks for the girl. She can’t imagine how terrifying this must be. Reeling her hand back towards herself, Ty Lee decides reaching out might not be the best move. Azula will think she’s trying to hurt her and might retaliate. 

Though, Ty Lee wonders if she really would, considering the trembling state of her girlfriend.

How is she supposed to help? Was there a way to break the hallucination? Was she supposed to say something? Do something?

“I just want you to love me…” 

Frozen, Ty Lee hears her heartbeat fully stop, processing those words. Words Azula had already told her, ones she had explained to Ty Lee in the privacy of her bedroom. Explanations as to why she would want that of her Father.

Slowly, movement comes back to her, and Ty Lee steels herself on the resolve that she has to do something. Azula was hurting, experiencing something she should never have to experience again. 

Start small, and very slowly.

This is the foundation Ty Lee sets up for herself. With small pushes, she inches her way closer to Azula, who still curls inward, scared of what might happen if she said or did anything more than that.

Ty Lee wonders if he was talking to her right now. If he was telling her the lies he had spat for Azula’s entire life.

She was determined to shut him up.

“Zula,” Ty Lee whispers when she is close enough, and watches Azula tense up. “I’m not going to hurt you, okay?”

“I’ll prove it to you. I’ll prove that I deserve to be at your side. Just give me more time…” Azula mumbles.

“You don’t need to prove anything to me.” Ty Lee says, hoping it may get through to the girl. 

“I know I failed, and I know I deserve it, but please...Don’t…Don’t do it...”

Ty Lee disagrees with everything in that sentence.

Her hand touches Azula’s for the slightest moment before it flinches backwards, along with Azula’s head, staring at her with such terrified eyes.

Ty Lee’s hand, now up in surrender, as a sign she means no harm, even though she’s sure now Azula sees it as anything but, slowly moves towards her.

“It’s okay, Princess.” Ty Lee coaxes, watching her girlfriend shrivel away from the hand, as far as she could. When she could go no further, she shut her eyes tightly, as if hoping it will be quick.

Ty Lee’s hand reaches her cheek, and although Azula still fears it, her body relaxes slightly. Slowly, the tension and the royal blue aura surrounding her fades into something softer. Hues of pinks and purples cloud her vision, and Azula hesitantly opens her eyes.

There it was. Ty Lee could see it now. The spark of recognition.

“Lee?” Azula rasps, voice sore from her shouting.

“Yeah, Zula. It’s me.” Ty Lee smiles, instant relief flushing through her at the notion that Azula was breaking from her hallucinations.

“W-What did I-” Azula stammers, looking around for an explanation. “Where...Where’d he go? My Father was just here.”

Ty Lee gives Azula a sad smile. “You were hallucinating, Zula. You thought I was him.”

Azula takes a moment to process this, but when she does, she follows with, “D-Did I do something? Did I hurt you?”

“No.” Ty Lee says immediately. “You could never hurt me.”

“You...You’re…” Azula mumbles before her face contorts, as if in pain. “I’m so confused.”

“I’m pretty sure Glenn called these lapses.” Ty Lee offers. She hopes it would help clear the air a bit. “Something must have happened to trigger it.”

Azula says nothing, and Ty Lee decides to give her a moment to recuperate. During this, she pulls out her phone and texts Suki.

_‘I think she’s feeling better now, but I’m gonna stay with her.’_

Suki’s response was quick. _‘What happened?’_

_‘She lapsed I think. I’ll explain more later, but go ahead back to the others without me.’_

_‘Are you sure?’_

_‘Yeah.’_

“Who’s that?” Azula mumbles.

Ty Lee looks up, shutting her phone off and pocketing it. “Suki. She drove me here.”

At this, Azula seems to remember Ty Lee telling her her plans. “You...You were out with friends?”

Ty Lee nods. “I was.”

“...And you had to leave because of me.” Azula follows. “I’m sorry.”

For some reason, that doesn’t sit well with Ty Lee.

Grasping onto her shoulders, Ty Lee pulls Azula into a hug, quick to wrap her arms around her neck and hold her close. “Don’t you _ever_ be sorry for something like this, okay?”

Slowly, hesitantly, Azula reciprocates the affection. “I just...I don’t want to waste your time when you should be out having fun.”

“I’m not wasting my time. You were hurting.” Ty Lee insists. “I wasn’t just going to leave you like this, that’s just wrong, Zula.”

Azula tightens her hold. “I know.”

“You say that, but do you really?” Ty Lee asks. “Would you have rathered I declined Zuko’s call and stayed with my friend while you were being tortured here by yourself?”

“...No.” She confesses.

“Good.” Ty Lee states. “Because that’s never going to happen.”

She hears a small chuckle come from her girlfriend, and she pulls away to indeed see the girl with a small smile, teeth barely visible between her slightly parted lips.

“You’re bluntness never fails to get through to me, Lee.” Azula praises. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me.” Ty Lee says with a smile, shifting to rest her back against Azula’s front. “I love you. All I ask is that you love me back.”

Azula takes her hand, and Ty Lee feels the warm skin, and her gentle caress. It’s so soothing that Ty Lee wouldn’t mind if she fell asleep like this.

“I’ll never stop.”

Ty Lee is glad her face is turned away from Azula, sparing her the humiliation of the burning blush coating her cheeks, up to the tips of her ears. She says nothing, merely squeezing Azula’s hand and letting them lay together.

After a few minutes, Ty Lee decides Azula has had enough time to settle her thoughts. They could try talking about it now.

“Did you see your Dad?”

Azula is quiet for a beat, before finally there is a hushed, “Yes.”

“Do you want to tell me about it?”

A deep exhale, and Ty Lee can tell Azula would really rather not, but she knows she needs to.

“It was cold. Unbearably so.”

This confuses Ty Lee, recalling how hot the girl's cheek was upon her touch, as well as her hand when Azula flinches away from it. “You were sweating, Azula.”

“I was trying to bend to feel warmer, but it wouldn’t go away. Everything was just so cold.” She explains. “And then I started hearing his voice. I tried to shut him out but...but then he was standing in the hall next to me and I...I just bolted.”

Ty Lee frowns. “That was Zuko, Princess. Not your Father.”

“That makes sense.” Was Azula’s answer. “It continued like that. His voices didn’t stop, and soon I guess you walked in and I saw him reaching out and I thought-”

Ty Lee knew exactly what she thought, so instead she shushed her. “It’s okay. You don’t have to say anything else. I get it.”

Azula’s head hangs downward. “I just want him to leave me alone.”

“I know.” Ty Lee mumbles, relaxing into Azula further. “I know you do.”

Azula plays with Ty Lee’s hands, and she watches with a smile as her girlfriend plays with her palms. Azula liked doing that when she was tense. The contact was relaxing to her, and Ty Lee loved it when Azula touched her, so she let it happen.

It made her feel special.

It was these moments that made Ty Lin’s words fade away, and lose any possible credibility. 

“Thank you.” Azula whispers into Ty Lee’s ear. “I mean it.”

She smiles. Ty Lee wouldn’t trade this for anything in the world.


	4. A Wild Card

It happens a few days later, when Ty Lee first meets Zirin.

It was completely out of the blue. She and the others were peacefully having lunch outside, and when Azula finally arrives, she is with her.

“Zula, who’s this?” Ty Lee asks, pausing from her lunch. The others had too, watching the strange display quite curiously. They had never heard of Azula bringing someone they didn’t know anywhere. Azula didn’t really talk to anyone that wasn’t already here.

“Everyone, this is Zirin.” Azula announces, gesturing to Zirin. 

The first thing Ty Lee notices is the braid. It twirled effortlessly down her back, going down to her hips before cutting off, and the hairs at the top slicked back to the scalp. It’s brunette color matched nicely with her tan skin, which adorned freckles splattered across her nose and cheekbones. 

The girl gives them a peace sign, a shameless smile playing across her lips. “Sup.”

No one says anything.

“Wow. Quite the crowd, Azula.” Zirin jokes, and Azula smirks. 

“They're in shock because I’ve managed to make a friend. Don’t take it personally.” Azula dismisses.

Zirin shrugs. “I wasn’t gonna, but alright.”

Azula takes a seat next to Ty Lee, who is watching Zirin take a seat a foot away from her silently. She’s not quite sure what to make of the girl. Her aura, for as orange as it was, was a shade darker then it usually would be on anyone else.

Ty Lee didn’t like it, but judging people just off their aura’s was something she’d learned not to do. After all, if she had judged Azula on her aura way back when, they would have never even become friends.

“So Zirin,” Ty Lee starts with a smile. “You go to Agni High?”

“Yeah.” She responds. “I just transferred in, which is probably why none of you know who I am.”

They all nod their heads, the information making sense.

“Where are you transferring from?”

“A private school not too far from here. It’s called Caldera Academy.” Zirin says, pulling her backpack in front of her and pulling out a plastic bag, containing a red apple inside. She takes it out, peeling the sticker off and promptly taking a bite.

“A private school?” Katara butts in. “What’s that like?”

“More or less the same as here, as far as I can tell. Though, it was a lot more prissy.” Zirin says threw her chewing.

Azula gives Ty Lee a smirk, one which Ty Lee returns with a roll of her eyes.

“Are you gonna try out for any sports or clubs?”

“Not my thing.” Zirin dismisses smoothly. “Though, Azula’s told me that the teams here are pretty good.”

“Best in the Fire Nation.” Ty Lee adds, that cheer pep working her way into her tone.

Zirin turns to her. “Do you play a sport or something?”

“Not exactly.” Ty Lee answers. “I do cheer.”

“But they have competitions right?” Ty Lee nods, and Zirin follows with, “So then, by definition, doesn’t that make cheer a sport?”

Okay. So maybe Ty Lee likes her a little.

“Nah.” Sokka laughs. “Cheer doesn’t really do anything other than wave their little pom poms.”

Suki slaps him hard on the shoulder, earning a yelp from the boy. 

Ty Lee, thanking her best friend with her eyes, responds. “Yeah, by that account it is, but most people in this school don’t think so.”

“Well that’s stupid.” Zirin remarks, taking another bite.

Ty Lee shrugs her shoulders. “We’ve gotten used to it, though the side comments do get annoying.”

“I bet.” She laughs. “You seem nice, what was your name again?”

Ty Lee gasps, a small laugh leaving her. “Oh my god we totally didn’t say did we?”

“I was wondering how long it would take you.” Azula chuckles, watching their faces flush in embarrassment.

Elbowing her girlfriend, she uses the same arm to extend her hand out to Zirin. “I’m Ty Lee, it’s nice to meet you.”

Zirin takes her hand, shaking it cordially. “A pleasure. Really.”

There’s no hint of sarcasm, and her shady aura seems to brighten a bit. Ty Lee concurs that Zirin must have just been a bit nervous.

After everyone introduces themselves, the rest of their lunch goes smoothly, everyone getting to know Zirin and all deciding she’s pretty fun to be around. Ty Lee, while still iffy on her, decides to ignore the doubt festering inside her and just enjoy the fact that Azula was making friends.

She had been wondering if anyone would be bold enough to be friends with her now that her involvement in her Father’s death was public knowledge. It seems a few still had some confidence, and kindness left in them.

Ty Lee decides it’d be good to give her the benefit of the doubt.

After all, she  _ did  _ say cheer was a sport.

“So what do you think?” Azula asks as they walk down the hall to their class after lunch.

“About what?” Ty Lee asks.

“Zirin.” She answers.

“Oh.” Ty Lee blurts. “She’s nice.”

“I saw you eyeing her.” Azula sighs. “You don’t trust her.”

Ty Lee, not bothering to hide it, shrugs and says, “Her aura was weird, that’s all. I’m ignoring it.”

“If you say so.”

_ Snap! _

Both of their attention is directed towards the source of the sound, and Ty Lee’s anxiety instantly spikes when she sees Ty Lin with her camera. She doesn’t seem to be paying attention to them, preoccupied as she fiddled with the settings on it.

“I didn’t know your sister did photography.” Azula remarks, returning her attention forward once they pass the girl. “Which one was that?”

“Ty Lin.” Was what Ty Lee answered with. “She’s part of the yearbook committee.”

_ When she’s not making my life a living hell, _ Ty Lee thinks.

“I’ll remember that.” Her girlfriend says. Ty Lee seems confused, and Azula follows up with, “Their your family, right? I figure I should try to know the differences before I embarrass myself.”

Azula...Wanted to know the differences?

Not even their parents cared that much.

Ty Lee felt she might cry.

“Ty Lee?” Azula asks, a smidge of concern bleeding through.

The brunette merely smiles. “That’s so sweet of you, Zula.”

“Of course. I want to get it right on the first go, so you’ll have to help me out.” She responds, tone completely serious, which doesn’t surprise Ty Lee at all. Azula wasn’t one to go into things unprepared. She was adamant about good first impressions, so it only made sense she held that standard to meeting Ty Lee family in a formal setting.

Sure, they’ve crossed paths, but that was never about their relationship. Yes, they knew Ty Lee was dating Azula, but they hadn’t asked to meet her yet. In fact, Ty Lee wonders if they’d even know which one of her sisters to ask about the fire bender.

But Azula asking for help, while new, was something Ty Lee welcomed with open arms. 

“Ask me anything.” Ty Lee says with a beaming smile.

She doesn’t see Ty Lin glaring at them from behind.

-

Later, after Azula had told her she’d be heading to therapy with Zirin after school, Ty Lee decides to go see Suki at the dojo.

She’s been working here for a couple of weeks, and the warrior seemed to really like it. Ty Lee had come a few times, and from what she could tell, agreed with her best friends sentiment.

“Hello?” Ty Lee calls upon entering. The dojo had a more earthy feel to it, with it’s shades of green and beige littered across walls, and bamboo styled walling decorating the front desk. 

“Ty Lee?” She hears Suki’s voice respond. Her head pokes out from behind a punching bag, and instantly lights up. “Hey!”

Ty Lee gives her a smile. “Mind if I join you today?”

“Not at all! No one comes in at this point in the day anyway.”

Ty Lee hums. Normally, middle of the day would be rush hour for these types of places, but the dojo was a small, family owned business, so only a few customers really knew about it.

Setting her stuff down, Ty Lee begins to stretch her limbs. It’s been a bit since she’s visited, so it would give her a good chance to work on her flexibility. They had a game coming up too, so she needed to be in tip top shape.

“So what do you want to do today?” Suki asks, finally coming over to the girl. She had a roll of tape in her hand, already redicting Ty Lee’s answer. She matches it with a smile. 

“Gymnastics and to kick your ass, like always.” Was her response, taking the tape and beginning to wind it around her palms. 

Suki laughs. “I’d like to see you try.”

“You say that every time.” She responds, watching Suki go over and mark something down on a clipboard on the desk. “And yet, I still beat you in the end.”

“Oh shut it.” 

With a giggle, Ty Lee finishes the tape on her hand. Doing the other, she sets the roll down and flexes her fingers. Secure, but not suffocatingly tight. Perfect as always.

“Shall we?” Suki gestures to the open mat.

She can feel her limbs tingling with anticipation, but forces herself to shake her head and point a finger to the rest of the dojo. “Warm-up first. Spar later.”

Suki groans, beginning to head that way. “Spoil sport.”

Ty Lee fake gasps. “Me? Never! I would simply rather  _ not  _ have to deal with an unexpected injury in the middle of cheer season.”

Laughing, Suki comments, “You kinda sound like Azula when you say stuff like that.”

“Is that such a bad thing?”

All Ty Lee gets is a shrug in response.

The dojo Suki worked at had everything a dojo could possibly want or have. While it may not have the newest models, it was durable and perfect for what Ty Lee wanted when it came to honing her chi blocking skills.

She didn’t need top of the line equipment. She invented chi blocking from the ground up, with nothing but her keen sense of energies and olympic level acrobatics. That doesn't require thousands of dollars worth of punching bags and tip top matting. All it takes is a living person, and a diligent hand.

After spending some time warming up and doing the exercises Ty Lee wanted, they finally stepped onto the firm mat, laid out specifically for this very purpose.

“Ready to see if you can finally hit me?” Ty Lee teases, jumping up and down on the mat to get a feel for how her acrobatics would hold up. There was a slight bounce to it, but not much. Ty Lee inwardly smirks though, because a little was all she needed.

Suki scoffs, fixing the last piece of tape and securing it under the wrapping. “Just you watch.”

Ty Lee says nothing, merely crouching down, fists outward defensively and ready.

Suki mimics the motion, her fingers flexing in and out of her fist. Ty Lee understands that she’s clearly deciding the best way of attack. 

When she surges forward, Ty lee’s already on the balls of her feet. Counting down the two seconds she has until Suki makes impact, she shoots to the side at just the right time.

Unsurprisingly, Suki’s fist follows, recovering quickly from Ty Lee’s dodge. Blocking her punches and jabs, Ty Lee kept her footing steady, determining just how to make a strike and what would be the best time to do it.

Maybe here, Ty Lee thinks, seeing the open energy and jabbing a hand towards Suki’s brachial, but finding it evades her touch.

No, that was too easy, Ty Lee decides, taking Suki’s outstretched arm and pulling her over her shoulder, sending her flying away from Ty Lee. Trusting herself to jump backwards, Ty Lee lands on her hands, shooting herself back up and onto her feet just as Suki composes herself to charge back in.

She was keeping up her defense today. Suki had been working on that, and she’s been improving if her more composed stance and relaxed attacks are anything to go by. She was getting comfortable in her style, and that made Ty Lee beam, even in the middle of their fight.

Suki notices, and eyebrow quirking up instantly. “What’s so funny?!”

Ty Lee laughs, creating a gap between them, jumping into the air, and kicking Suki’s incoming hands away in one go. Her feet are only on the ground for a second before she’s twisting her way through the air once more. 

“Nothing! I’m just having fun!”

“Quit jumping around! You’re impossible to fight with like that!”

Ty Lee’s feet hit the ground, and almost as if she had never changed positions from her starting pose, she smirks. “You said you’d beat me. That means I get to go all out.”

Suki huffs, and Ty Lee can see her breathing is beginning to unravel, becoming erratic and rushed. All of Ty Lee’s jumping had caused Suki to overexert, and now she’s paying the price. That doesn’t deter the warrior though, because she doesn’t fail to rush back in and continue her onslaught of attacks. 

Ty Lee has always praised Suki’s fighting. She’s exceptionally skilled, but her fighting was too grounded. Maybe that’s how she learned it in the Earth Kingdom, but Ty Lee could see so many ways that Suki could improve. Plus, if she incorporated chi-blocking into the technique, Suki could easily become just as formidable as someone with powerful bending.

But not today. 

It’s a simple jab to the leg that does it, rendering it useless and making the girl fall to her knees. Following with two jabs at her arms, Suki groans when she realizes she is out of options. 

“Why do you always win?!” She bemoans.

Giggling, Ty Lee takes a seat next to the slumped over warrior. Just as she does so, Suki falls to her back, looking miserable. Rolling her eyes, Ty Lee says, “You’re so dramatic.”

“I’ll get you next time.” Suki promises. “Can you unblock me now?”

Ty Lee hums, as if in thought. “I don’t know...It’s kinda fun watching you mope like this.”

“You sadist.” Suki jokes. “Please? I have to clean up before the person taking over my shift arrives.”

“Alright, Alright.” Ty Lee laughs, her eyes following the streams of energy to where she had cut it off and opened them back up. After a few seconds of readjusting to the feeling of mobility in her limbs, Suki sits up, stretching.

“Wanna call it quits for today?”

Ty Lee sighs, checking the time to see that she had been here for about an hour and a half. “Yeah, that’s probably best. I’ve got to get some homework done.”

Suki nods, sympathizing with the sentiment. Together, they make their way over to Ty Lee’s stuff. The brunette proceeds to grab a towel off the rack next to her bag and dry off the thin sheet of sweat coating her body.

“So are you working at the circus still?” Suki asks, leaning against the wall. 

Ty Lee shakes her head. “They left town last season. They gave me the offer to come with, but I declined.”

“Obviously.” Suki laughs.

Sighing, she says, “I don’t know. I might like to go explore the world one day.”

“In a circus?”

Ty Lee shrugs. “Maybe.”

“Well that’s up to you. What do you think Azula would say about it?”

“She’d probably support me.” Was her simple answer as she packed her things up, slipping on her shoes.

“Are you sure about that?”

Ty Lee pauses, looking up at Suki to see her distinctively narrowed eyes and untrustworthy expression.

“Yes?” She follows with, not understanding why Suki was suddenly so callous. 

Suki hums. “I don’t know Ty. Seems to me like she might have a problem with that.”

“You have no basis to make a claim like that about her.” Ty Lee sighs, starting to get the accusation. Suki was still skeptical of Azula. “She’d support me in any way she could. I'm sure of it.”

Suki sighs, but doesn’t push any further.

-

When Ty Lee arrives back at Azula’s house, she quickly locates Zuko in his office after seeing Azula’s room was empty.

“Hey Zuko?” Ty Lee asks, popping her head in to see the boy at the still too big of a desk for him. “Where’s Zula?”

“Out with Kiyi, I think. They should be done soon.” Zuko grumbles. Ty Lee raises an eyebrow at his seemingly despairful mood, but decides not to comment on it. He looked to be busy, so he’s probably just moping about work.

“Thanks!” Ty Lee beams, shutting the door behind her.

Making her way to the living room, she can feel her muscles slowly starting to weaken, the soreness from her sparring session starting to weigh down her steps. She doesn’t think she can walk all the way down to the arena and back so she settles for just watching a bit from the patio.

She can see them in the distance. Azula’s blue fire as a silhouette to Kiyi’s. They looked pretty synced up, and Kiyi was following beautifully. When the form was complete, Kiyi seemed to ask Azula something, who merely nodded her head. Kiyi then jumped onto her, latching around her waist into a hug, which Azula seemed happy to reciprocate.

She could see the smile from here.

Ty Lee smiles. Azula was a good teacher, but an even better sister.

Letting her fingers glide across the stone railings, Ty Lee turns away and walks back inside. With a sigh, she collapses onto the couch, exhausted. It doesn’t take long for her eyes to shut close, and for her to lose any remembrance that she had math homework to do.

When Azula finds her not long after that, she tells Kiyi to go on and shower before kneeling in front of her girlfriend's sleeping figure.

“Ty Lee?” Azula whispers, seeing if the girl was only partially asleep. When she receives no answer, she decides the girl must be wiped out.

Examining the brunette, she’s quick to notice the subtle dipping in the brunette’s skin, alluding to the tape that was once wrapped around her hands, and the light smell of sweat emanating from the girl.

Softening, Azula’s smile was all too mellow for anyone else to believe it was her. “You dork. You went and exhausted yourself again, didn’t you?”

Carefully, she picks the girl up, gripping onto the undersides of her thighs, and letting Ty Lee’s arms and head fall limp on her shoulders. She feels the girl subconsciously snuggle into the hold as Azula begins to make the journey to her room.

Azula subtly presses a small kiss to the side of Ty Lee’s neck as she walks. It gave her a tremendous amount of warmth when Ty Lee nuzzled her head into the crook of Azula’s.

“That’s fine.” Azula whispers, answering her own question. “I don’t mind taking care of you every once and a while.”


	5. Questions

If there was one person who understood a part of Ty Lee that no one else did, it was Aang.

Ty Lee had always been in tune with energies and auras, which is something not a lot of people these days possessed. However, after an interesting conversation with Aang, Ty Lee started to have a few questions about her apparent skill. 

Normally, if Ty Lee were to start rambling about her aura or other people’s around her, she’d get strange looks and hurried ends to the conversation. When she did it with Aang though, he seemed to genuinely be listening and understanding what she was saying.

Kind of like now, after a nice meditation session in a local park.

After finishing, they began to just talk. Both of their bubbly personalities complimented each other well, and could keep the ball rolling for hours if they wanted to. In fact, they’d already been talking for a good fifteen minutes now, but that was mostly just Ty Lee going on and on about someone’s interesting aura in a shop she recently went in.

She stops mid sentence, a nervous smile on her face. “I’m rambling, aren’t I?”

Aang smiles. “A little, but it’s totally fine! I’ve never heard of someone having such a strong connection to auras before, so it’s really interesting to hear.”

Ty Lee tilts her head. “What do you mean?”

“Back in the temple, there were tons of monks who were very attuned to people's chakras and energies. Some could see auras just like you could, but I’ve never heard of anyone being able to see such vivid realizations of them.”

This throws Ty Lee off. “There are other people like me?”

“Well...Not anymore.” Aang sighs, and Ty Lee realizes that she was making him bring up a probably still very sore subject.

“Oh Agni, I didn’t mean to-” Ty Lee stammers. 

Aang quickly waves her off. “It’s totally fine, Ty lee.”

She sighs in relief, glad to have dodged that awkward bullet.

“My point is, do you know if you happen to have any Air Nation history in your family?”

A small squeak leaving her, Ty lee’s eyes grow wide. “Air Nation?”

“Yeah.” Aang confirms, his eyes seemingly growing with anticipation, and the slightest hint of hope.

Ty Lee...She didn’t know the answer to that. She’s never really bothered to look into it. Both her parents are Fire Nation, so she just assumed…

Did she?

“I don’t know honestly.” Ty Lee laughs nervously, rubbing the back of her neck. “I’ve never thought about it before.”

“Both your parents are Fire Nation right?” Aang asks, earning a nod from the brunette. “It makes sense then, especially with everything that happened to my people, but you might have an Air Nomad in your family tree somewhere.”

“But no one else in my family can see the stuff I can.” Ty Lee remarks, looking at her hands and seeing the hints of blue gray swirl into her bright pink aura. “It’s always just been me, the weirdo.”

“It’s not weird.” Aang laughs. “You’re just a very spiritualistic person.”

She’s...She’s not weird?

Ty Lin always said she was though.

“People think it’s strange.” Ty Lee laughs, slightly masking her insecurities. “Or think I’m crazy.”

“That’s because they don’t know Air Nation history. If they did, I bet things would be different.”

She’s never thought of it like that, but maybe he’s right. Maybe, if things were different then this wouldn’t be so strange to everyone. Even Ty Lee had to admit,  _ she  _ thought she sounded crazy when she talked about it sometimes.

But maybe if she did have some Air Nation history, that could answer a lot of the burning questions she’s always had. 

“Maybe we should take a trip to the temple.” Ty Lee suggests. “Do you think there’d be any information on it?”

Aang seems to ponder it. “I’m not too sure, most of my culture's teachings were burned during the Fire Nation’s attacks, but it couldn’t hurt to go and look one day.”

Sorrow seeping into her, she remembers just how horrid this topic is. “Are you sure you’d be okay with that?”

“Totally! It’d be nice to go back too. It’s been a while since I’ve been home.” He assures, not looking at all hurt by the subject. In fact, he seemed happy to know Ty Lee had taken an interest in his culture.

“...Thanks, Aang.” Ty Lee smiles, promptly gasping when an idea occurs to her. “Maybe we should do one of those ancestry tests!”

“Oh yeah!” He beams. “That’ll tell us for sure!”

Maybe Ty Lee could finally get some real answers.

-

For once, Ty Lee was finally trying to study.

It’s not like she was bad at her subjects. She did perfectly fine in all of them, but that didn’t excuse the fact that she could be doing better. Lately, her grades in math had started to slip, which Ty Lee wasn’t too surprised about. With cheer starting to intensify, her focus had been elsewhere. 

But tomorrow she had an important quiz coming up, and she was struggling on one particular section in the chapter.

So, sat at Azula’s desk, textbook out and notebook scribbled in, Ty Lee sat, eyebrows furrowed at the page.

She doesn’t get what she’s doing wrong. She’s read the material dozens of times over, and understands what the sample problems show, but when she tries to execute it herself, it’s nowhere near close to the answer given in the book.

With a groan, Ty Lee gives in and sets her pencil down, burying her face into the hand that had been propping her chin up.

“Well well, now that is a sight.” Azula teases upon entering. “Ty Lee studying. Who would’ve thought?”

Ty Lee sighs, leaning back in her chair. “Math sucks.”

“And why’s that?” Azula asks, flopping onto her bed with a school assigned book in hand. 

“It makes no sense! I’m doing everything right but the answer’s still wrong!”

“Are you using the correct formula?”

“Yes.”

“Are your values properly plugged into it?”

“Yes!”

“Are you following the steps?”

“Yes, Azula! And it’s still wrong!” Ty Lee exclaims. She knew her girlfriend was a math whizz, but she didn’t need to rub it in her face.

With a sigh, Azula sets her book down and moves from the bed over to the desk. Placing a hand on the wood, she leans over Ty Lee to examine her work.

“Normal distribution.” Azula notes by the textbooks title. “Isn’t this Statistics work?”

“My teacher wants us to be  _ ahead of the game. _ ” Ty Lee mocks, adopting the worst impression of her math teacher.

“And it’s this problem?” Azula asks, pointing to the question Ty Lee had been working on. She nods.

Azula hums checking over her work and the numbers she had input onto the calculator. After a minute, she sets both down, and points to the word problem on the page. “Read what that says for me.”

“What?” Ty Lee asks.

“Read the word problem.”

Leaning in a bit, Ty Lee recites the words Azula’s finger is pointing to. “How high must an individual score on the GMAT in order to score in the highest 5%?”

“Now, what is this asking you?”

“To find out how high you have to score to place in the top 5%?”

Azula nods. “Good, now look at what you’ve been doing in your work.” She says. “You did well to subtract the .05 from 1, but you're not trying to find the z-score of .95. You need to find the z-score of the 5%, which is…”

“The .05, not .95.” Ty Lee mumbles, understanding her mistake and fixing it. Though she feels Azula watching her rework the problem, she stays focused. But the hand snaking around her shoulder wasn't making it any easier.

Ty Lee flushes at the thought of their recent...activities.

Since Ty Lee’s birthday, their sexual life seemed to jump tenfold. It wasn’t a bad thing, no, it was definitely  _ not _ a bad thing, but with so many enticing images to sort through in her mind, math became very hard to think about.

She’d think about that later, though. Right now she had to focus on finishing this question.

Her pencil stops, and she’s left with an answer of 711.24. Checking the textbook, Ty Lee finds that it is indeed the correct answer. Turning to Azula, she finds a proud smile playing on her girlfriend's lips.

“Excellent job, Lee. Do you think you can do the rest?”

Standing, she finds herself immediately in Azula’s personal bubble, just inches away from the other girl's lips. “I think that’s enough math for today.”

Azula quirks an eyebrow up, a smirk edging at her once innocent lips. “Is that so?”

“Mhm…” Ty Lee leans in, pressing her lips to Azula’s. What starts out soft, quickly becomes something more. 

“Are you sure you won’t make any more silly mistakes?” Azula husks, her fingers grazing the cloth of her shirt just around her hips. 

Ty Lee giggles. “I think I’ll be just fine.”

“Good, because I really couldn’t wait any longer.” 

Suddenly, Ty Lee is hoisted up by her thighs and brought to the bed, falling into the cushions to find Azula crawling on top of her. She smirks when Azula meets her gaze.

“Then I guess I shouldn’t keep you waiting, Princess.”

-

Azula’s bed was  _ so  _ much bigger than hers.

It’s not that Ty Lee had a small bed, or that she didn’t like it, but it was apparent that Azula’s was larger. There was so much space to move around in, whereas Ty Lee would usually be confined to curling up.

Maybe there was too much space.

Ty Lee’s never liked space anyway. She’s always been on for being closer together, so long as it’s with the right person. And Azula was definitely the right person. It’s not like they used most of it anyway. More often than not, they were cuddled together, as if glued to the hip. Plus, it was warmer like this.

Shifting a bit to move closer, Ty Lee smiles through her sleepy state, holding onto Azula’s waist snugly, as her girlfriend trailed a lazy finger up and down Ty Lee’s arm.

“You’re up early.” Azula mumbles. Her words slur a bit, but Ty Lee can tell there’s some coherence to them. She’s been up for a while.

Ty Lee, having only woken up a few minutes ago, hums. “And you’re warm.” She mumbles.

“You always say that.”

“Cause it’s always true.”

“Of course it’s true. I’m a fire bender.”

“It’s  _ wonderful _ .” Ty Lee sighs happily, earning a laugh from Azula.

This was by far her favorite part of the day. Waking up with Azula was something she’d never thought she’d see. Then again, she also never thought she’d see the day Mai genuinely smiled at Azula, but it finally happened a week ago, so she really can’t be surprised by anything anymore.

“ _ You’re _ wonderful.” Azula utters, voice just above a whisper into the brunette’s hair. “You know that, right?”

“Azula?” Ty Lee asks, a bit thrown off by the sweet sentiment. Azula holds her tighter, and Ty Lee has a sneaking suspicion it’s so she can’t see Azula’s face.

“You’ve done so much for me.” Came her quiet voice. “Sometimes I feel like there’s something I should be doing for you.”

Ty Lee giggles. “Why would you need to do that?”

“Because you...you never ask for anything in return, even when you give so much to everyone.” Was Azula’s response. There was still some strain in her voice, so it was clear it was still tough for the fire bender to be honest, but this was proof she was trying. “You put so much on the line when you took a chance with me. You gave me support at every turn, even when you were suffering yourself.”

“I wasn’t suffering-” Ty Lee scoffs, but is cut off by Azula’s voice.

“You hid it well, I’ll give you that.” She chuckles sadly. “Always so kind, and patient. You were everything I needed you to be, but at what expense?”

Suddenly, Ty Lee remembers dozens of nights alone, crying in her bedroom.

“What did it cost you?”

-

Even after she had left Azula’s house that morning without giving the girl an answer to her question, she couldn’t get the memories out of her head.

Azula was right, as much as Ty Lee didn’t want to admit it. Being there for Azula, with the knowledge of the things she’d done, was one of the hardest things Ty Lee had ever had to do. It sounds cruel, but sometimes Ty Lee wished she hadn’t lunged into the supporting role so quickly.

If she were to simplify it, Ty Lee would say she was scared of Azula. Terrified, even.

Azula was scary, and not just for losing her mind. It was the things she had done before that point. The pain she had inflicted on others, the manipulation she endured for her entire life. Everything about Azula screamed toxic back then. 

Everyone told her Azula wasn’t worth the effort. That she was a lost cause at this point. No one comes back from what Azula had done.

Against her better judgement, Ty Lee disagreed.

She knew, deep down, the Azula Ty Lee knew as a child was still in there. She just didn’t realize how much it would hurt her to bring that back out of Azula.

It strained her relationship with the gaang, and it affected her mental health and usually vibrant pink aura. Most of the pain probably stemmed from the fact that Ty Lee was doing this because she loved Azula, no matter how fucked up that may have seemed.

Loving Azula was hard. It hurt, and it was painful because she had to watch the girl fight with her own sanity. There was always a battle to fight, and words to be said. There was no room for error, and Ty Lee was always walking that tightrope, and one wrong word could send her falling to the ground. She had to put Azula at the forefront, pushing her own problems aside in order to help Azula with hers. In a way, Ty Lee lost herself while trying to help Azula find that very same thing.

The biggest blow that Ty Lee came home to every night was that fact that she was doing all of this for Azula, and didn’t even know if the girl had reciprocal feelings. Just that thought opened the floodgates, and Ty Lee would be a mess the rest of the night.

Tears spilled until they dried, and when they didn’t Ty Lee was left too exhausted to keep her eyes awake. When she did manage to sleep, she’d dream of things if they had been different. Things if Azula truly got better.

Things that could be if Azula loved her back.

Every morning, Ty Lee would wake up with hope, ready to get through the day just as bubbly as the last, only to have it crushed by the day’s end.

It was an endless loop. One Ty Lee couldn’t break out of because she was already so deeply embedded into Azula’s recovery that she couldn’t flake out. It became apparent Azula needed her, even if she wouldn’t say it.

So Ty Lee stayed with the hope that maybe things would get better.

Then Azula said those five words. Those four words that weren’t quite what Ty Lee wanted to hear, but they were close enough.

_ “You’re everything to me.” _

That and a kiss, and suddenly, all the pain went away.

Her efforts hadn’t been for nothing. Just her confessing to Ty Lee was enough to prove her recovery was slowly but surely working.

From there, it got easier.

Azula became gentler. Kinder, at least to her. She listened to Ty Lee, which took so much stress off of Ty Lee’s back. She didn’t feel the need to hold her feelings back anymore. All of her pent up resolve crumbled as their relationship blossomed. 

Ty Lee was free to speak anything she liked, knowing Azula would listen to her and not judge her for it. There was no more fear of rejection, because even if Azula hadn’t said it outright, she showed it to Ty Lee every day. 

Yes, in the beginning, it had hurt. She had spent so many nights alone and upset, Ty Lee had lost count, but it was proof that things were truly different now. Now she wasn’t alone. She had Azula next to her, and that was enough for any sorrow to leave Ty Lee instantly.

Now she was happy.

The door to her room bursts open.

Only, now that Azula’s problems weren’t hers to bear anymore, that left her own.

“You’ve been ignoring my texts.” Ty Lin’s voice grits through her teeth, stomping over to the bed after shutting the door closed.

Ty Lee sits up. “I’ve been busy-”

“Like hell you have been!” Ty Lin shouts, grabbing onto Ty Lee’s shirt and thrusting her towards her. Ty Lee’s eyes widen, fear spiking through her at her sister’s searing glare. “With what?! Gymnastics?!”

“W-With homework-” Ty Lee stutters.

Ty Lin cuts her off with, “I don’t care! If I text you, I expect an answer!”

The beginnings of tears pick her eyes, but Ty Lee blinks them back. “I’m sorry.”

Ty Lin throws her back onto the bed harshly. Her back hits first, followed by the sharp jerk of her head back into the bedding. It didn’t hurt, but it didn’t feel great either. 

“You’re pathetic. Why would anyone care about you?” She scoffs.

Ty Lee lays there, eyes shut as she fights not to cry.

“She’ll leave you eventually, you know.” Ty Lin’s voice bellows. By the shift of direction her voice had taken, Ty Lin was moving around the bed. “She’ll see just how worthless you are, and get rid of you.”

Ty Lin knew Azula was her biggest weak point. That had to be it. The constant targeting of her girlfriend. It hurt, but she’d said it so many times, Ty Lee had grown used to the constant insults. If she could just bear through it, then-

“You’re  _ nothing  _ to her.” 

Ty Lee gasps, eyes opening as she feels Ty Lin’s breath pressed right up against her ear. There was a hand clamping her arm down so she couldn’t move, forced to listen to this in full.

“Don’t you get it? She’s just confused right now, and once she realizes that, she’ll go back to being herself.”

“That-That’s not true.” Ty Lee tries.

“Oh but it is, and deep down you know it.” Ty Lin laughs. “The  _ real _ Azula would never love someone as useless as you.”

And then the arm is gone, and Ty Lin walks to the door. Opening it, she looks over her shoulder at Ty Lee’s paralyzed frame.

“I texted you because I need you to write me an essay about the war between the Earth Kingdom and The Water Tribe 300 years ago. I need it by Friday.” Ty Lin explains, but receives no answer, only a stifled sniffle. “You better get to it.”

The door shuts, and Ty Lee is alone.

Alone, and unwanted.

_ Maybe Ty Lin is right. _


	6. Secrets

Ty Lee gasps. “You’re coming for Thanksgiving?!”

“...That’s what I said, yes.” 

“Yay!” She squeals, her hands jutting outward in celebration. “Oh Agni. You can tell me everything that’s happening there!”

“College isn’t that exciting, Ty Lee.”

“Oh come on, Ty Woo! You’ve got to be having fun right?!”

“I mean...Sure, but-”

“Oh!” Ty Lee interrupts, too excited to care about her poor manners. “How’s the rowing team? Has the season started yet-”

“Ty Lee-”

“Are the girls nice? Have you made any friends? What’s it like there? Is it warm? Oh! Have you found a-”

“Ty Lee!”

Pausing, Ty Lee realizes she had been rambling again. “Oh Agni. Sorry.”

“It’s alright.” She laughs from the other end of the phone call. “Just slow down, okay? I’m happy to answer any questions you have.”

“Hey Ty lee?!” A voice just the same as hers calls from the other side of her door.

“Hang on.” Ty Lee says into the speaker before muting it. “Yeah?” 

The door opens to reveal Ty Lum on the other side. Clad in her softball outfit, shoes in one hand while her bag loosely hangs off her shoulder, she says, “You’ve got cheer today, right? Wanna ride together?”

Ty Lee nods. “Sure, do you wanna take my car?”

“Yeah. Yours has more space.”

“Sounds good, but I’m on a phone call right now.” Ty Lee says, holding up her phone to the softball player.

“Oh, sorry.” She says, running a hand through her short, curly hair that cut off at the bottoms of her ears, and squints before saying, “Is that Ty Woo?”

“Oh! Yeah, it is.” Ty Lee says, unmuting her speaker. “Ty Woo, Ty Lum’s here.”

“Hey sis!” Ty Lum calls.

“Hey Ty Lum! How’s the season going?”

“Undefeated and unstoppable!” Ty Lum cheers. “How’s rowing?”

“Not undefeated, but lots of fun.” Ty Woo’s answers. 

“I’m glad, but I’ve gotta finish getting ready. We should talk soon!” Ty Lum says..

“Definitely! Have fun.”

Ty Lum turns to leave, saying, “I’ll see you in a bit.” before the door closes.

Ty Lee sighs. “Ty Lum’s been working her butt off lately. She’s paranoid about college scouts.”

“Makes sense.” Ty Woo responds. “She’s a great player though, so I’m sure someone will take notice.”

“I hope so.” 

“So you’re still cheering?”

“Of course!” Ty Lee laughs. “I love the girls, though we did get some new ones who don’t seem to be that into it.”

“Trouble?”

“Not sure yet, but we’ll see. Their names are Quay and Akia.”

“Well if it does become a problem, you need to tell someone.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Ty Lee dismisses. “What about you? You haven’t answered any of my questions!”

“Rowing is fine Ty Lee. I’m not the best, but I’m not the worst either. The girls are really nice, and we’ve got some good chemistry going. I think it’s gonna be a good season.”

“That’s so great!” Ty Lee exclaims, happy for her sister. “I should try and come see a race one day!”

“You really don’t have to do that, Ty Lee.” Ty Woo laughs nervously. “My college is so far, it’s super inconvenient and-”

“I don’t care! I wanna come support you!”

Silence.

Then a laugh.

“...I’ll look forward to it then.” Ty Woo says in between breaths.

Ty Lee smiles, but it is castward down when a thought pops into her head. “Hey Woo?”

“Yeah?” She responds.

“Is college sca-”

“Ty Lee!” Ty Lum exclaims, barging the door open. “Are we going or not?!”

Ty Lee looks at the time, her eyes widening at the realization that if they didn’t leave now they were going to be late. “Crap! I gotta go Ty Woo! I’ll call you later!”

“Wait-!”

Ty Lee hangs up, grabbing the already prepared bag at the foot of her bed and the keys laying on her nightstand. “Okay, let’s go.” 

-

When they arrived at the school's locker room, which reeked of its usual smell of sweat and molded walls, Ty Lum’s friends came around the corner, eager to greet the girl with happy smiles. The girl they saw first was the captain of the softball team, Ikia.

“Hey Tyle-! Uhh…” Her voice was instantly cut off by the sight of Ty Lee next to the girl. The brunette raises an eyebrow, and takes a quick glance at Ty Lum’s face, which seems all too terrified for some reason. It was also interesting that she had hints of green swirling around her too.

“Is something wrong?” Ty Lee asks, deciding to just ask it flat out.

“N-No!” Ty Lum laughs, going over and wrapping a firm arm around Ikia’s neck. “Ikia’s always been a weird one. Don’t worry about it.”   
  


“Okay…” Ty Lee mumbles, and points to the cheer section of the locker room. “I’m gonna go get changed. Have fun at practice, okay?”

“Totally!” She laughs, but it’s very nervous. Ty Lee decides to ignore it. Ty Lum was probably just nervous about the game tomorrow. It  _ was  _ going to decide if they advanced in the tournament.

Ty Lee turns to walk away, hearing Ty Lum and her friends do the same.

_ “Are you insane?!” _

_ “I’m sorry! I didn’t realize she was there!” _

_ “Well you shouldn’t…!” _

Their hushed voices fade away, and while Ty Lee is so completely confused, she shakes her head and continues on to her section, where Suki is just getting on her shirt. When Ty Lee finally sets her bag down next to her designated locker, Suki notices her still flabbergasted face.

“Something wrong?” She asks.

“I don’t think so, but Ty Lum and her friends were being really weird.” Ty Lee asks, pulling out her practice clothes and proceeding to get changed.

Suki tilts her head. “How so?”

Ty Lee shrugs. “I can’t really explain it, but somethings off about her.”

Suki hums, shutting her locker and propping her arm up against it. “Is this the first time it’s happened?”

“Yeah.” Ty Lee nods. “I mean, I’m not  _ super  _ close with her, but she’s never been like this before.”

“I’m sure she’s fine. Doesn’t she have a game tomorrow?”

Ty Lee nods. “That’s what I told myself, but it’s still strange.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it.” Suki reassures, patting her shoulder. “If she’s still acting weird after the match, then you can worry about it.”

“I guess you’re right.” Ty Lee smiles, finishing up with changing and pulling her hair into a more secure braid. “Alright, let’s go or we’ll be late.”

Ty Lee’s always loved cheer. It’s where she shines as an athlete, and apparently, she was a pretty good captain too. Given the position in her second year by the old captain, Ty Lee thought she wasn’t suited for the role, but after some rare encouragement from Mai, she gave it a chance.

Turns out, leading wasn’t as hard as she thought it would be. At least, not for cheer. 

The girls were all super nice and supportive. Ty Lee would help coach make the choreography, but Ty Lee made it apparent to the girls that if they thought something needed to be changed or added onto, they were free to speak up. The girls appreciated that a lot, because last year the captain wasn’t very lenient on their routines, so to have a say in the matter was a huge step for them.

The chemistry between the girls grew, and Ty Lee always helped anyone who needed support on a particular move. She wasn’t a leader who could do things on her own. She asked for help, and cooperation from the girls who were very willing to give it.

Ty Lee loved the girls, and that made cheer so much better for her.

Practice goes by in a flash, like it always does. With the football game this weekend, they were looking prepared to do their normal routines. Ty Lee always had them do it a couple of times, and then the rest of their time together would be used to learn their competition routines.

Though, the new girls were starting to become a problem.

It wasn’t anything major, but it’s like they didn’t want to be there. It didn’t make sense if that was the case though, because why try out for something if you’re not going to want to be there? Were they doing it for the popularity boost?

“Alright girls!” Ty Lee says. “That’s enough for today. Great job!”

With that, all the girls send their goodbyes to Ty Lee, and begin to head inside.

Ty Lee was on cleanup duty today, which included mopping the gym floors and rolling up the mats they were using to cushion any falls. Ty Lee liked outdoor practices more, because there was no need for such things, but the teams who needed the fields always used them for after school practices.

Suki decides to fall back and help, and together they get it done in about 10 minutes. After that, and some quick showers in the locker room, Ty Lee and Suki are heading out to the parking lot, where Ty Lum is waiting, leaning against Ty Lee’s car with her headphones in. She quickly notices them, and takes one out.

“Ready to go?” She asks.

Ty Lee gives her a thumbs up and a smile, and turns to Suki. “Thanks for your help. We should hang out soon.”

“Definitely. Maybe we can go to the mall tomorrow? I’m free after practice.”

“Sounds fun!” Ty Lee beams. 

“I’ll text you about it later.” Suki says, waving her goodbye and beginning to head to her own car. 

Ty Lee pulls out her keys and unlocks the car, Ty Lum and her quickly climbing inside. It doesn’t take long until Ty Lee’s pulling out of the school parking lot.

Silence enveloped them both for the first few minutes, but Ty Lee’s mind wandered back to that strange moment in the locker room. She’d been trying to ignore it ever since it happened, but she was starting to let her thoughts turn into concerns.

“...About what happened in the locker room-” 

“Wanna get boba?” Ty Lum asks, abruptly cutting Ty Lee off. “They’ve got a new drink I wanna try.”

Ty Lee, not taking her eyes off the road, purses her lips. She wasn’t close with Ty Lum. Not close enough, anyway. They didn’t usually talk about these things to each other, so it makes sense that Ty Lum would want to avoid the conversation. 

Maybe she should just leave it be, and when the time comes, Ty Lum will talk to her about it.

“...Okay. The usual place?” Ty Lee asks with a smile.

Ty Lum reciprocates the affection. “Yeah.”

With that, Ty Lee drives them to the boba place. It was a good after practice stop for them, since they both enjoyed boba. Though, Ty Lum preferred more of a thai milk tea, while Ty Lee liked strawberry.

Getting their drinks, Ty Lee finally begins to drive them home. It doesn’t take long. The cafe wasn’t too far from their house, but as they started to pull onto their street, Ty Lee decides to say something. 

“...You know you can talk to me, right?” She says, earning Ty Lum’s attention. “I won’t judge you for anything, so don’t feel like you need to keep things from me.”

Ty Lum looks down. “...I know. I just, I don’t have the answers right now.”

A small smile resting on her lips, Ty Lee says, “That’s okay. You don’t have to tell me right now. But when you’re ready, I’ll always be here.”

“Thanks, Ty Lee.” Ty Lum says sincerely, climbing out of the car with her bag. 

Ty lee begins to turn the car off, but hears her phone buzz from its spot in her cup holder. Raising an eyebrow, she picks it up to see a text message from Mai.

_ ‘Can you come to the shop?’ _

Ty Lee raises an eyebrow. That was new. Typing a quick reply, she says,  _ ‘Sure. Is everything okay?’ _

_ ‘Just come to the shop.’ _

Okay. Something was definitely wrong.

Turning the ignition to her car back on, Ty Lee pulls out of her driveway.

-

“Mai?” Ty Lee calls over the cute jingle of the doors bell, alerting the staff to her presence. 

“Ty Lee?” 

That wasn’t Mai, Ty Lee notes. Heading over to the counter, she sees that it was Michi, Mai’s mom.

“Hey Mrs. Michi!” Ty Lee beams. “Is Mai around?”

“She’s in the greenhouse out back.” Her Mother replies kindly. “And how many times have I told you to drop the Mrs?”

Ty Lee laughs. “Sorry, Michi. Force of habit?”

Michi laughs herself, and nudges her head. “Go on, I’m sure she’s waiting for you.”

“Thanks!”

Ty Lee heads down a hall to the side of the store, which has a door at the very end. Opening it, she is greeted to rows upon rows of plant life, a plethora of flowers to choose from, and a very broody girl standing in the middle. 

“Took you long enough.” Mai comments, not bothering to turn around, but Ty Lee hears the faint snipping sound.

“What is all the secrecy about?” Ty Lee asks, skipping over to Mai. “Usually we just call or something.”

“It’s been a bit since we hung out, and this was important.”

Ty Lee’s eyebrows furrow. “Okay, what is it?”

Mai sighs, setting her pruning shears down onto the steel table. “Zuko and I have been fighting a lot lately.”

Concern bubbles up in Ty Lee. “Are you guys doing okay?”

“I don’t know, but I just feel like he’s not interested anymore.”

“Zuko loves you.” Ty Lee reassures, moving to stand beside Mai. “Maybe he’s dealing with something?”

“That’s not it.” Mai says. “He’s been fine. The company’s doing great, his schoolwork isn’t super overwhelming, and he’s...he’s fine.”

Ty Lee hears her, but she’s starting to see the real issue here. “Do you think that, maybe you’re the one dealing with something?”

Mai is silent, so Ty Lee decides to ease up and ask a few questions that might help Mai see her point.

“What have a lot of the arguments been about?”

“Just our relationship.” Mai answers, shaking her head. “I...I don’t think it’s working anymore.”

“Why’s that?”

“I just don’t-” Mai starts, but cuts herself off.

Ty Lee inhales, realizing what that look meant.

“I love Zuko. I do.” Mai starts slowly. “But...Not in the way he wants me to.”

“Not romantically.” Ty Lee adds to help her fully realize it.

“I used to though. Or, maybe I thought I did.”

“Are you going to tell him?”

Mai takes a breath. “It would break his heart.”

“It would.” Ty Lee concurs. “But you’re not happy.”

“Agni, am I really thinking about this?” Mai sighs, face falling into her hand, while the other grips the counter tightly. Ty Lee moves a gentle hand to Mai’s shoulder.

“Zuko’s a great guy.” Ty Lee starts. “But maybe you two just aren’t meant for each other.”

“I don’t want to hurt him, but I think you’re right.”

Rubbing her back soothingly, Ty Lee holds a saddened expression. Zuko and Mai were certainly an interesting pair, but Ty Lee can’t say she didn’t see this coming. Zuko wasn’t the best at confronting his own feelings, and Mai, for as goth and uncaring as she seems, did care and was really trying with Zuko.

Clearly things weren’t working out.

“I’m sure he’ll be okay. Just take your time and find the right moment.”

“Do you think he’ll forgive me?”

Ty Lee sighs, and leans her head on Mai’s shoulder. “Give it time, and I’m sure he will.”

-

Ty Lee laid in bed, realizing how much she wished she was in another.

Groaning, she fights with herself because no, she was not going to go over to Azula’s in the middle of the night just because she wants Azula to hold her.

She’s not going to do that.

“...Damnit.” Ty Lee grumbles, grabbing her phone and typing out a text message to her girlfriend.

_ ‘Can I come over?’ _

He thumb hovers over the send button, and Ty Lee’s eyes wander to the time. 1 AM. It’s the middle of the night, and Azula was sure to be asleep. If she didn’t respond, then she’d just apologize in the morning.

She clicks send, and instantly closes her phone and throws the screen face down onto her bedding. Eyes wide, she watches the phone, waiting for any kind of buzz or light to show up.

She gasps when she feels her phone buzz under her hand. Moving it so she can see, Azula’s name flashes back at her.

_ ‘Of course.’ _

She’s at Azula’s house in record time, opening the door to find Azula waiting for her in the lobby. She looks concerned. 

“Ty Lee, is everything alright?”

Ty Lee sighs, walking over to Azula and letting her head fall against her chest. She feels Azula’s gentle hands press against her back, but she's too tired to care.

“I’m just tired, and I missed you.”

She hears a small chuckle. “Can’t sleep without me?”

The pride dripping from Azula’s tone is almost enough to make Ty Lee want to scold her, but Ty Lee’s exhausted from everything that’s happened today. She decides to let it slide.

“I haven’t seen you all day.” Ty Lee replies. “Can you blame me?”

Azula sighs, but it’s not in annoyance. “Truthfully, no. I don’t like falling asleep without you anyway.”

Ty Lee knows why that is. Whenever she wasn’t here, Azula more often than not had nightmares, so Ty Lee decides not to expand on that. “I’m sleepy now, can we go to bed?”

Without a word, Azula picks Ty Lee up and into her arms, and she is able to see the warm smile on her face. “Whatever you want, darling.”

Ty Lee’s blush doesn’t leave her the entire journey to the bedroom, and even when it begins to settle, she’s sure Azula could probably still see the faint pinks coating her cheeks even in the dark atmosphere.

Azula sets her down and onto the bed gently, and with so much care before proceeding to join Ty Lee on her side of the bed. As soon as the covers are pulled over both of them, Ty Lee cuddles in closer, and Azula places a comforting hand around Ty Lee’s waist.

“How was cheer?” Azula mumbles.

“Great, the girls are really…” Ty Lee begins, cut off by a yawn. It was impressive how sleepy she got whenever she was with Azula. “...good.”

“I’m glad to hear it. I suppose you’ll still want me to come to the football game this weekend?”

Ty Lee nods against Azula’s chest.

“Then I can’t wait.”

Ty Lee smiles, and with the last bits of her energy leans up to kiss Azula.

There’s something different about it. It’s...warmer than the others. Ty Lee feels so inexplicably safe and warm that she never wants to break the kiss. In fact, she scooches herself up to get a better angle, even pressing a hand to Azula’s cheek.

When they finally part, Ty Lee buries herself in the crook of Azula’s neck, taking in the intoxicating smell of cinnamon. The candle was nice, but it was nothing compared to being here, with Azula. 

Just before she falls asleep, Ty Lee remembers Ty Lin’s harsh words from a few nights ago.

_ “You’re nothing to her.” _

Ty Lee holds onto Azula a little tighter.


	7. A Poor Filter

“Oh! Let’s go in there!” Ty Lee exclaims, pointing to a cute little shop down the mall’s hallway. The dainty sign poking out of the wall caught Ty Lee’s attention, and she wanted to see what was inside. 

Suki shrugs, taking a sip of her drink. “Alright.”

Their plans from that day after practice had unfortunately gotten backlogged, both Suki and Ty Lee getting slammed with an unreasonable amount of schoolwork. They both decided it would be best to just change the date for the weekend. 

Though, during that week Ty Lin had really been trying hard to break Ty Lee’s spirit. She was getting bolder too, some of their exchanges happening in empty school stairwells or bathrooms. Plus, she’d been forcing Ty Lee to do more of her work, which, on top of her already large amount, was really crippling her mental health. It also didn’t help that college application deadlines were nearing, and Ty Lee didn’t even have a semblance of an idea of a career path she wanted to take.

She needed a break, desperately.

Which is why Ty Lee was looking forward to this so much. It gave her room to breathe. Ty Lee had been so stuck doing work that she couldn’t even go see Azula, because if she did, she knew she wouldn’t get any of it done.

It was nice when Azula called her, and they chatted while Ty Lee answered question after question, going through page after page. Plus, it helped to have a genius on call, able to answer anything she might have been stuck on.

It helped, knowing Azula was there even if they couldn’t talk. Ty Lee was upset because of their forced distance, but her girlfriend praised the fact that she was putting in the effort to get her work done.

Putting her thoughts behind her, Ty Lee checks back into reality when they step into the store. Ty Lee knew immediately that she liked it. The vibrant colors and pastel walls gave a nice, cheerful atmosphere.

Together, they begin to walk around the shop, browsing through various clothing articles, picking something up but putting it down when they decide against it. Then, as Ty Lee’s hands grazed over the hangers along a rack of jackets, it pauses when she catches sight of a light pink hoodie.

Scratch that, Ty Lee thinks as she notices that it was a crop top. 

Picking it up, Ty Lee can’t help but love the simplistic style of it. It was a solid light pink color, with two white stripes circled around the sleeves, and white hoodie strings.

“Oh that’s cute.” Suki says upon reaching Ty Lee’s spot.

“I know right?” Ty Lee says, smiling, as she checks the price. It was a lot lower than she was expecting. “I think I might get it.”

“I’m gonna get this.” She responds, holding up a pair of dark green cargo pants. “Wanna head up now?”

Ty Lee nods, and they check out, making some small talk with the nice lady at the register, who thanks them and bids them a good day. When they leave the store, Ty Lee lets out a happy sigh. “That place was so adorable!”

“It was pretty cute.” Suki agrees. “Where do you wanna go next?”

Ty Lee hums, looking around but not coming up with anything. “I don’t know. Do you have any ideas?”

“Can we head into a shoe store? I need a new pair for cheer.”

“Alright.” Ty Lee affirms.

Making their way to a nearby shoe store, they get just in front when Ty Lee’s phone starts to ring, pulling it out, she sees Azula’s name. “It’s Azula. You go ahead in, and I’ll catch up, okay?”

Suki nods, heading inside while Ty Lee moves to one of the walls outside, answering the call with, “Hey Azula!”

“Hello, darling.” Azula’s voice came. “What are you up to?”

“Just at the mall with Suki.” Ty Lee responds, mood brightening with every second that she talked to her girlfriend. “You?”

“I just finished up with Dr. Glenn.”

“How was it?”

“Good. I told her about the lapse, and was happy I was able to get through it so quickly.”

“Did she give you any tips for the next time it happens?” Ty Lee asks.

“Well the first was to not burn the house down.” Azula jokes, making Ty Lee have to cover her mouth with her hand in resistance to bursting out laughing. “The next was work on my breathing? She said it might help with calming me down.”

“Okay.” Ty Lee says, making a mental note of that. 

“But we can talk about that later.” Azula dismisses. “I was wondering if you were free once you were done at the mall?”

Ty Lee hums. “I think so yeah. Why?”

“Do you want to do something?”

Ty Lee smiles, catching on to Azula’s phrasing. “Like a date?”

A pause. Then, “...Yes?”

Ty Lee wants to explode with love from the fact that Azula is still this nervous about asking Ty Lee out on dates. Deciding to spare her girlfriend the embarrassment of commenting on that, she says, “I’d love to, Zula. What did you have in mind?”

“I figured we could go get dinner somewhere, and then just go for a drive. Nothing special, really.”

“That sounds fun!” Ty Lee beams, already excited. “Should I just come to your house after this?”

“Sure, I’m out with Zirin right now, but I won’t be long.”

“Okay.” Ty Lee affirms, pointedly ignoring the spike of jealousy that worms through her heart. “I’ll see you then?”

“Can’t wait.” Azula replies, and Ty Lee can hear the smirk.

“Bye!” Ty Lee sings, pressing the end button and pocketing her phone.

Mood considerably lifted, Ty Lee skips into the shoe store, passing by isles of various kinds of shoes to where she could see a brunette with short hair. When she reaches her, humming a happy little tune, Ty Lee asks, “How’s the hunt?”

Suki glances up, acknowledging Ty Lee’s presence and saying, “Good! I think I found the ones.”

Ty Lee sees them, and supports the choice.. They were required to wear plain white shoes, so that it matched with the uniform, but any brand or design label was of the wearers choosing. Suki’s followed that code, but Ty Lee enjoyed the cool patterns woven into the shoe’s material.

“So what did Azula want?” Suki asks, putting the shoes back in the box and standing up. 

Ty Lee beams. “We’re going on a date tonight.”

“Sounds fun! Where are you two going?”

“Out for dinner.” 

“I think I know what’s for dessert then.” Suki mumbles through a teasing smirk. Ty Lee gasps, elbowing her arm harshly. Suki yelps, hand immediately rubbing over the sore area. “Ow!”

“You deserved it. Who says stuff like that out in public?!”

“I’m sorry!” Suki laughs, running ahead to the register so that Ty Lee can’t hit her again.

-

When Ty Lee arrived at Azula’s house, she had gotten a text from Azula saying she was only a few minutes out. Ty Lee had sent her a thumbs up, and proceeded to head to Azula’s room, dropping her shopping bags with a sigh.

Her eyes catch the new pink hoodie, and with a hum she pulls it out of the bag. Curious, she strips of her current top and puts the new one on. Heading over to the mirror, Ty Lee quickly surmises that she really likes it.

It was perfect for the current weather. Fall in Republic City didn’t get cold until the later days of November, and seeing as they were only the first week into the month, the temperature was still pretty warm. It would be perfect for a day out in the city.

“Is that new?”

Or maybe a date with her girlfriend.

Ty Lee turns, holding the hems of the crop top with a smile. Nodding, she says, “Yeah. It was in a cute little shop I hadn’t gone in yet.”

Azula, who had been walking over to Ty Lee, wraps two familiar arms around her waist and pulls Ty Lee in. With it available to the fire bender, it was child's play to run her fingers along the exposed skin, making Ty Lee blush.

“You look beautiful.” Azula whispers into her ear. 

“Flatterer.” Ty Lee giggles, taking the compliment but remaining humble under Azula praises. 

“It’s true.” She affirms. “You look stunning in anything.”

Her blush deepens, but she’s anything but bashful. Ty Lee loved it when Azula complemented her. Mostly because it was coming from Azula, the girl who once would only compliment someone on their ability to fire bend.

“Thank you.” Ty Lee whispers, placing a chaste kiss to Azula’s lips. “It feels like forever since I’ve seen you.”

“You saw me at school.” Azula jokes, a smile worming its way onto her lips as Ty Lee pouts.

“You know that’s not what I meant.” She responds.

“I know.” Azula says, kissing her forehead. Ty Lee smiles at the intimate gesture, the stress of the past week washing away and filtering out of her body, replaced by the undeniable comfort and warmth of Azula’s embrace. “But I’m so proud of you for powering through it.”

Azula was the best girlfriend ever.

Ty Lee didn’t need to think about it, she just knew it. Azula always said exactly what she needed to hear, even if she didn’t know it needed to be said, and it never failed to brighten her mood and put an extra skip in her step.

“I love you.” Ty Lee says abruptly, not feeling a reason to say it, only that she wanted to.

Azula raises a bemused eyebrow. “I love you too. Now, are you going to change or are we going on a date like this?”

Ty Lee looks down at her brand new hoodie, high waisted jeans that cuffed at the ends, and her pink vans to match the previous shirt she had on. Then, her eyes turn to Azula’s outfit, a simple blue tank top with back jeans, her combat boots creating some slack around the end of her shoes and the leather jacket covering her arms.

She shrugs. “I don’t see why not.”

Azula, equally as unbothered by their choice in attire, turns, taking Ty Lee’s hand saying, “Then let’s get going.”

Azula’s bike, still parked outside since she knew they were going to be leaving anyway, looked as new as the day she finished putting it together. She wouldn’t say it, but Ty Lee knew Azula treasured this bike more than she did Aang and his friends. That was fine with Ty Lee, she can’t expect them to be best friends after everything that transpired. What matters was that both parties were civil, and got along when they did interact.

Ty Lee didn’t need her to be friends with them, only that she not cause tension between her and her friends. And for the past few months, there had been no such grievances. They had a few hiccups in the beginning, but Ty Lee can’t hold those against either side, as they were still learning to coexist with each other.

Azula gets on the bike fist, starting the engine as Ty Lee sits down and picks up her pink helmet, sliding it on after letting her hair loose from its braid. 

“So where are we going to eat?” Ty Lee asks, sliding up the visor as Azula checks her own helmet.

She sees the side of Azula’s smirk from behind her. “I’ll give you a hint. It’s your favorite.”

Ty Lee gasps, holding on tighter as she realizes the implications of those words. “You mean…”

Azula chuckles, her helmet slipping on to cover her features. “You’ve earned it.”

“Yes!” Ty Lee squeals. “Omashu steakhouse!”

-

Ty Lee loved steakhouses. Everything about them was always so exciting, but because of her devotion to cheer and her figure, she didn’t go very often. When she did though, she always came out with eyes sparkling in joy.

Her favorite part, aside from the delicious Earth Kingdom food, was the way they prepared it right in front of her. Azula enjoyed it too, finding the way the fire danced in front of them fascinating to watch. Ty Lee agreed with the sentiment, even though she probably didn’t understand the complexities behind Azula’s words.

Plus, the almost chaotic and free spirited nature of the family establishment always made Ty Lee happy. Looking around, seeing people enjoy their own personal spectacles with just as much amazement as her never failed to make her smile.

So much so, she always missed how Azula only looked at her, the softest of smiles resting upon her lips.

Friendly as they paid their bills and left the restaurant, Ty Lee waved to the nice employees as they exited, and sighed happily, full and content. She wouldn’t mind going home and falling asleep right now, but Azula said she wanted to drive around, so she’d hold out for a little longer.

“It’s dark out already.” Azula notes. “We must have been in there for a long time.”

Ty Lee looks up, seeing the flickering stars up in the night sky, and the moon, crescent shaped against the black backdrop of space. “Yeah.” She smiles.

“Still up for that drive?” Azula asks, pulling out their keys as they near her bike. 

Ty Lee bounces, a skip in her step as she nods. “Always.”

It doesn’t take long before they resume their normal positions, and Azula is pulling out of her spot, the engine revving before the bike begins out of the lot and onto the main road.

She doesn’t know where Azula is taking her, but frankly she doesn’t care. As long as she was with Azula, she knew she’d be fine. They were both more than capable of handling themselves, and Ty Lee trusted Azula with her life, and then some. 

Passing by building after building, she sees glances of people walking the streets, the street lamps and windows to apartments blurring together as they race down the road. The wind grips at her head, pulling her backwards, but Ty Lee fights it by resting it onto Azula’s shoulder. 

They never had to say anything during moments like these. All they needed was each other, the open road, and a nice view. If they had that, then they could make memories they’d never forget.

The industrial scenery of the city suddenly vanishes, and Ty Lee’s eyes pass by dozens to hundreds of trees in mere seconds. Azula had sped up, having finally left the hustle and bustle of Republic City, and now on the open road where even the police liked to speed.

Not keeping track of the time, Ty Lee guessed it was only a few minutes before the gaps in the trees began to display the sparkling shine of the moonlight. Slowly, the gaps got bigger, and bigger, until suddenly the trees vanished and Ty Lee was left to marvel at the stunning view of the wide open ocean.

Even from here, the waves ripped against the moonlit water, and foamed at the ends, colliding with the sand onto to dissipate and crawl back into the ocean’s mysterious depths.

Azulat turns, slowing slightly so as to not jerk towards the right, but still having enough speed to make Ty Lee’s heart spike with adrenaline. They were now straight on course for the beach, Ty Lee able to see it at the end of the road.

Then they pulled into a parking lot, and Ty Lee could see the small piles of sand littered about the asphalt. 

“Azula,” Ty Lee starts, looking around at the completely barren lot. “What are we doing here?”

Azula takes off her helmet, her hair flowing down her back as she waves it free of its confines. Turning to Ty Lee, she flips her visor up so that her hazel eyes may meet Ty Lee’s grey ones, and says, “Wanna go for a walk?”

“...It’s 8:30 at night.” Ty Lee deadpans, for once being the serious one of their spontaneous activities. 

“So?” Azula questions lightly, standing and swinging her leg over the side of the bike, allowing her to place her helmet where she had once been sitting. 

“So,” Ty Lee drawls, taking off her own helmet. “I have work I need to do-”

“Oh please.” Azula chortles, taking Ty Lee and pulling her off the motorcycle. “You’ve done enough work. Take a break and enjoy the view.”

Was that what they were doing here? It would make sense, seeing as Azula had been aware of just how stressed Ty Lee had been the past few days. Azula was trying to be nice and caring, and Ty Lee could explode just from the thought alone. It’s just that Ty Lee never expected her to take it to this degree.

“But-”

“Ty Lee. I am the world's leading authority on working too hard.” Azula insists, learning in with a firm stare to say, “Take the break.”

She certainly wasn’t going to object. So, with a smile, she sets her helmet down and takes Azula’s waiting hand. “Okay.”

Taking off their shoes and leaving them by the bike, Azula assures Ty Lee that there was literally no one here, so no one was going to steal their things. After that, they head down a sandy path, which, under layers of the grainy earth, had wooden boards to walk across until you get to the beach. 

Ty Lee instantly notes the difference in feeling from the wooden boards to the mounds of sand, tickling her feet and making each individual unit curl and wiggle in the powdery flooring. Azula chuckles, Ty Lee’s head instantly snapping up with an embarrassed blush painting her cheeks. They both don’t say anything about it, preferring to begin their walk towards the shore.

“I never asked.” Azula suddenly remembers. “How did your exam go in History?”

Ty Lee lets her smile rest on her lips. “Good. I got an 85.”

“Well done.” Azula praises. “I’ve always heard the teacher is a bit hard to follow along with.”

With a shrug, she says, “He’s not so bad.”

Azula chuckles. “Ever the optimist.”

“You know me!” Ty Lee beams happily. 

Suddenly, the cold temperature of the waves reeling into the shore grace the sand beneath their feet, covering up to their ankles before drifting back outwards. Ty Lee looks down, fascinated by the sand, which, now a muddy texture, starts to get dragged out along with the water.

“You haven’t changed at all, have you?” 

Azula’s question was abrupt, and when Ty Lee looks up to see Azula's reminiscent smile, she raises an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve always been so interested in the most minute and inconsequential things. Even back when we were kids.” She explains, eyes filled with nothing but love for the memories.

Ty Lee looks away, sporting a pink blush. “It’s just...I find it interesting, okay?”

Her free hand is enveloped in a familiar warmth, and with both now interlocked with Azula’s, she is turned to face the fire bender fully. She can see the genuine affection sprinkled in her eyes, swimming through those golden hues just as the waves before them rippled through the water.

“Did I ever say it was a bad thing?”

Ty Lee will never understand how Azula is able to make a week's worth of stress disappear in only a few minutes of conversation about a completely unrelated topic. It was a feat she’d never seen anyone else able to successfully do, but here Azula was in front of her, making it all wash away with the tides.

“No.” Ty Lee whispers. “You didn’t.”

“Exactly, so don’t look so embarrassed.” Azula comments, pressing a kiss to Ty Lee’s forehead. Ty Lee feels it, and registers it, but for some reason has no reaction to it. All her mind can think of is one singular though that had suddenly popped into her mind for only a few brief moments. And now, all she can think about is saying it.

So she does. She’s never had a good filter anyway.

“Go to Prom with me.” 

Her words are clearly abrupt and sudden, judging by Azula’s surprised expression, but Ty Lee doesn’t falter. Her words are clear and her decision is set. This is what she wants, is all she has ever wanted.

Azula laughs. “Isn’t Prom in like, six months away?”

“I don’t care.” Ty Lee affirms. “I want to go with you.”

“Well I’d hope so.” 

The tease cracks the barest hints of a smile on Ty Lee’s composure, but she steals herself, and eyes Azula, demanding a proper answer. The fire bender sighs. 

“Of course I’ll go to Prom with you, Lee. Was that not obvious?”

Ty Lee beams. “You mean it?”

She can tell Azula knows Ty Lee is three seconds away from squealing like a child, and resigns herself to her inevitable fate. “Yes, I do.”

Without another second wasted, Ty Lee pulls Azula in by the collar of her jacket, kissing her deeply against the scenic backdrop of the dark blue ocean.


	8. A New Friend

“Zuko?” Ty Lee questions, eyeing the boy who was sitting in her assigned seat for art class. “It’s nice to see you, but I kind of need my seat.”

He scoots one chair over. 

“That’s Mai’s seat.” Ty Lee proceeds to say. 

“Don’t worry. She’s not coming.” Zuko sighs, finally saying something and taking the worry that he had become a mute off of Ty Lee’ chest.

Setting her stuff down on the ground, Ty Lee takes her seat next to the boy. “I know she’s here today, so why wouldn’t she come?”

“Because we fought, and Mai is skipping because of it.” He mumbles in despair. Ty Lee’s heart rate instantly starts to pick up, recalling her and Mai’s previous...conversation.

“She told you this?” She asks, clearing her throat as his head moves up and down under it’s hidden position in his arms curled on the table. “What did you two fight about?”

She wanted to get away from this topic as much as possible, but it was clear that Zuko wasn’t going to talk about anything else until whatever they fought about was resolved. So, Ty Lee resigns to force herself to help the boy out of his slump.

“I’m…” He starts, but it seems that he can’t find the words to explain it. “I don’t know, honestly. I think she’s mad about me not putting enough effort into the relationship?”

Ty Lee hums calmly, but inside she's screaming for someone to please come interrupt them. Art class was probably the worst time to do this too, because her teacher literally never does anything after giving out the instructions for the next assignment, so the whole period is basically just kids sitting doing nothing.

“Why do you think that is?”

“I have been working a lot lately…” Zuko ponders, his head revealing itself to the outside world. “Maybe I’m not giving her enough attention?”

Ty Lee considers that, and honestly doesn’t think it’s too much of a stretch. “Okay, that’s a possibility.”

“I don’t know what to do, Ty Lee.” Zuko whines. “I’ve tried asking for what she wants but she always blows me off saying it didn’t matter anyway.”

Ty Lee sighs. She can’t blame Zuko for the frustration. Mai has always been hard to reach, no matter who’s trying to talk to her. Even Ty Lee couldn’t always get the girl to open up unless Mai was coming to her first. “Well, that’s Mai for you.”

“I know, I just thought that now that we’re in a relationship, she’d be more communicative with me.”

Ty Lee mentally bangs her head against the table. He can’t seriously expect her to just change how she is because he expects her to right? That’s foolish, and a stupid way to think of things.

“Have you talked to her about that?” She asks. “If you’re just expecting Mai to change like that, then it’s not going to happen.”

Zuko’s fingers, which had been tapping along the desk, stop abruptly. “She doesn’t want to change. She’s said that explicitly.”

“Right.” Ty Lee recalls. Mai has always had the motto that she wasn’t going to change for anyone just because they need her to. “Well, why don’t you try just talking with her? See if you can reach some sort of agreement?”

“She won’t listen to me!” Zuko exclaims quietly, and Ty Lee is grateful for the fact that he doesn’t want to draw attention to the pair.

Placing a comforting hand on his back, she pats it lightly. “You never know unless you try.”

Zuko lets out a sad sigh. “I really love her Ty Lee. I think she’s the one I want to marry one day.”

Good Agni Ty Lee did  _ not  _ need to be here right now.

Ty Lee was fine with keeping Mai’s secret, but she wasn’t expecting to have a conversation like this with Zuko, the very person Mai wants to now break up with. This wasn’t what she signed up for, but now she was too far in to let her guilty conscience relieve itself.

“That’s sweet, Zuko.” Ty Lee tries to keep her voice as level as possible.

“Do you not think so?” He asks, picking up on her weariness. 

Ty Lee gulps. “I think...I think that we’re all still really young, and anything can happen.”

“You don’t think so.” He mumbles sorrowfully.

“I didn’t say  _ that _ -” Ty Lee starts. “I’m just  _ saying,  _ it’s a little too early to be choosing your soulmate is all.”

“Well, what about you and Azula?”

Ty Lee’s heart skips a beat, her mind recalling Ty Lin’s words from what seems like so long ago now.

_ “You’re nothing to her.” _

“Like I said…” Ty Lee starts uneasily, fighting against those memories. She thought she had gotten rid of them by now, but she supposes she hadn’t.

Of course she wanted to marry Azula. She’s been in love with her for so long she can’t remember not being in love with her. Every day was like a dream with her, but...

_ “She’ll see just how worthless you are, and get rid of you.” _

Ty Lee’s gaze grows solemn, and she can’t deny that saying her and Azula were a special case compared to everyone else was hypocritical. “...Anything can happen.”

-

After that conversation, Ty Lee’s mind had been a little down in the dumps. Even when Ty Lin yanked the speech Ty Lee had written for her out of her hand, saying something rude to her, she barely even flinched.

Were her and Azula as secure as she thought they were?

Honestly, Ty Lee was starting to think they weren’t. Maybe it was all of Ty Lin’s grueling conversations with her, but Ty Lee would be lying if she didn’t see some truth in her words.

Azula loved her, but how long would that last? She was making friends outside of who Ty Lee knew, and as much as Ty Lee wanted to deny it, she was jealous. She wanted to trust Azula, she  _ does  _ trust Azula, but Zirin was an unknown factor Ty Lee didn’t know how to account for.

Just what did she and Azula talk about while Ty Lee wasn’t there? They were both in therapy, so did she understand Azula better than Ty Lee did? Was there something that Ty Lee didn’t know about?

Was Azula-

Ty Lee’s eyes widen, and slaps herself out of that chain of thought. She will  _ not  _ allow herself to think like that. Azula has done so much for Ty Lee. She’s  _ killed  _ in order to keep her safe, and now she was thinking that Azula was cheating on her with a girl she’d only met a few weeks ago? Seriously?

Tightening the straps of her backpack around her shoulder, Ty Lee leaves the empty stairwell and heads down the busy halls, weaving through the waves of students that were heading out of the building. She heads to where she knows Azula’s locker to be, and finds the girl shutting the door to it. 

Azula sees her for a moment, noting the strange determination on Ty Lee’s face. “Ty Le-!?”

She couldn’t even finish her sentence before Ty Lee’s lips crashed into hers, causing her to jump at the sudden contact, but melt into it only a second later. Screwing her eyes shut, Ty Lee focuses on the warmth Azula emits, and the intoxicating smell of cinnamon. Pretty soon, Ty Lee relaxes, letting her worries leave her.

“What was that for?” Azula asks when they part. 

Not wanting Azula to catch on, Ty Lee merely smiles and says, “I just wanted a kiss is all.”

She doesn’t need to know. She has enough of her own problems.

“Alright.” Azula chuckles, moving her hand to take Ty Lee’s. “Shall we then?”

Ty Lee nods, and together they head outside, where Mai and the others are waiting.

She immediately notices that Zuko was nowhere in sight.

“Where’s Zuzu?” Azula remarks when they are close enough to the group. “If I have to endure this extravaganza then so does he.”

“You make it sound like such a big thing.” Katara retorts. “But if you must know, he said he got caught up in some work stuff, so he had to cancel at the last minute.”

“Of course he did.” Azula sighs. “So, who is this newcomer we’re meeting?”

“The girl Sokka used to have a crush on.” Aang snorts.

“Don’t tell them that!” He yells, making Ty Lee and the others begin to laugh.

“What’s their name?” She asks.

Katara looks at her with a smile. “Yue. She’s from the Northern Water Tribe. Her family is actually one of the wealthiest there.”

“Finally. An idiot with class.” Azula jokes, earning a laugh from Toph.

“Where are we meeting her?”

“The docks.” She says. “She’s arriving by boat.”

“Are you all riding there together?” Azula asks, pulling out her phone for a minute. Ty Lee watches her, curious, and sees that she was only checking the time before putting it away. They all nod, and Azula follows with, “Great. Me and Ty Lee will meet you there.”

“What makes you think you’ll get there before us?” Sokka challenges.

Ty Lee watches Azula’s carefully constructed eyebrow raise, unimpressed with his words. “I have a motorcycle that is capable of going 278 miles an hour, and you think you can beat me in Tuesday afternoon traffic?”

Ty Lee purses her lips, a smile forming on her face as she contains the laugh that is 3 seconds away from bursting out. Sokka leans over to Katara, who was the driver of their group, and whispers something.

“Uh, no.” She replies bluntly, not even bothering to hide her answer from the rest of the group.

Sokka straightens up, clearing his throat before saying, “Okay. We will see you when we get there.”

Ty Lee has to physically turn around so she doesn’t laugh in the poor boys face.

“Sounds wonderful.” Azula blunts, turning and taking a laughing Ty Lee with her. When Ty Lee manages to look up through her tears, she sees Azula smiling as well. 

-

Azula wasn’t lying when she made such bold claims. It took the gaang 7 minutes longer than them to get to the docks, and Sokka still looked agitated, like he had been trying to beat her even though he knew he couldn’t.

After everyone was ready to begin walking, Katara led them to a large building that connected to the docks, and said that they would wait in here for the girl.

“Why can’t we just wait until tomorrow?” Azula asks, sat in a waiting seat while Katara tapped her foot against the carpeted floor of the docking area. “What’s the point of meeting her here like this?”

“Because it’s been forever since we’ve seen her, and she’s a bit shy at first. It would be cruel to leave her in this big city all alone.”

Azula sighed, and leaned over to Ty Lee, who had been watching the conversation silently. “Then what am I doing here?”

Ty Lee tilted her head affectionately. “You don’t want to make a new friend?”

“I have plenty of friends. I don’t need more.” Azula retorts, her hand making its way around Ty Lee’s shoulders. Despite the divide between them due to the chairs, Ty Lee edges a bit closer to Azula and leans her head on her shoulder. 

“Then let's just say you're here for me.” Ty Lee offers. 

Azula hums, seeming to think it over. “That would make the most sense, but what do I get out of it?”

“I have a few ideas.” Ty Lee says, voice suggestive. “Wanna take a guess?”

Azula smirks, not turning towards Ty Lee as she says, “Not here, when your friends can very clearly hear us.”

“And would like to remind you that we can all hear your  _ entire  _ conversation.” Mai butts in, clearly exasperated. 

Ty Lee blushes, looking down in embarrassment but Mai’s words do little to sway Azula’s prideful smirk. “If you don’t want to hear it, don’t listen in.”

“You are a foot away from me, and I have no way to tune you out.” Mai continues. “How exactly do you expect me to do that?”

“I’m sure you can think of something.”

Ty Lee leans forward, meeting Mai’s twitching eye with pleading ones.

_ I know you’re not happy right now, but please don’t cause a scene, _ they seemed to beg.

Mai frowns, but backs off with a cross of her arms. “Whatever.”

Ty Lee relaxes in her chair, and they are content to wait the rest of the time in silence.

A few minutes later, Katara’s phone buzzes. “She’s here!”

The gaang stands, but Azula stays sat down, as well as Mai and Ty Lee. All three of them watch as, after a few minutes, all five of them jump, screaming the girls name as they run off towards the entry gate. 

“Guess that’s our cue.” Azula sighs, standing up with Ty Lee. Mai isn’t far behind, and they all walk over to where the gaang huddled around the girl in a giant bear hug. When the group finally separates, Ty Lee is finally able to get a good look at the girl. 

She instantly notes that Yue is very pretty. It’s not every day she saw someone able to pull off white hair like that, and style it in such a unique way that it looked like two waterfalls flowing down her shoulders. Her brown skin complimented her big blue eyes gorgeously, and the kind smile she wore matched that of the soft blue aura she emitted around her.

“Hi!” Ty Lee greets. “I’m Ty Lee.”

“I’m Yue.” The girl replies. “It’s very nice to meet you.”

“This is my girlfriend, Azula.” Ty Lee says, gesturing to the fire bender next to her. She makes no readable expression. Yue doesn’t seem to put off, bowing her head to the girl and following Ty Lee’s hand to Mai. “And this is my best friend, Mai.”

Ty Lee has to do a double take when she sees Mai’s wide eyes.

“Hi, I’m Yue.” She repeats for the girl, sticking out her hand since apparently Yue had already caught onto Mai’s gothic personality.

  
“I heard.” Mai blunts, taking Yue’s hand and shaking it once before letting it go.

Yue giggles.

Ty Lee quickly disconnects herself from the scene, watching Mai and Yue begin to have a completely normal conversation as if they’ve been friends for weeks.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Azula whispers to her.

Ty Lee nods, breathing, “I have  _ never  _ seen Mai talk to a stranger  _ this  _ easily before. Have you?”

Azula shakes her head, completely bewildered by the scene. They both watched along with the gaang who seemed equally as shocked at the scene. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Ty Lee sees something in Mai’s aura she’s never seen before, even when she’s with Zuko.

Dashes of pink splatter themselves in the goth’s grey aura.

-

After pleasantries were swapped, and Ty Lee was told that Yue would be added to the group chat, so that was how they could all get her number, Azula and Ty Lee left. At first, they were hesitant, but after a look at Mai and Yue, who seemed to be getting along nicely, chatting long after the expected amount of time, they determined she’d be fine riding with the others on her own.

Thus, they headed back to Azula’s house, where they sat on the couch, watching a movie Ty Lee hadn’t bothered to remember the name of. Laid in Azula’s lap, the girl played with Ty Lee’s hair, and it didn’t take long for Ty Lee to realize she was braiding it.

“You can braid hair?” Ty Lee asks, tilting her head up to see her girlfriend.

Azula smirks. “I told you I could, you just didn’t believe me.”

“I thought you were bluffing!” Ty lee exclaims.

Azula holds up the girls halfway done braid. “Well obviously I wasn’t.”

“How did you learn?”

“My best friend has been braiding her hair since she was 4 years old. You think I wouldn’t pick up on her tactics?”

Ty Lee purses her lips into a smile. “You were paying attention?”

“Of course.” Azula scoffs. “I’m not one to be outdone in anything.”

With a happy sigh, she whispers. “You’re amazing.”

Azula brings her head down to kiss Ty Lee’s awaiting lips. “I know.” She whispers back, and gets back to braiding Ty Lee’s hair. “By the way, apparently Zirin has a gang.”

Ty Lee freezes a bit. “What?”

Chuckling, Azula continues. “Don’t sound so scared. I’m just telling you that she’s introduced me to them. Apparently they're all kids in therapy, or out of it like me.”

This information doesn’t sit well with Ty Lee, but she can’t find a reason as to why. “Are they nice?”

“Depends on your definition of nice.” Azula replies, finishing the braid. “I’d define them as...fun.”

As much as she didn’t like the idea of Azula hanging out with a gang, Ty Lee couldn’t stop her. What Azula did wasn’t hers to moderate, she could only give her her honest opinion. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to be hanging out with people like that?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“I just don’t want you falling in with the wrong people is all…” Ty Lee mumbles.

Suddenly, there's a kiss to her forehead, and Ty Lee looks up at Azula.

“I appreciate the sentiment, Ty Lee, but it’s not necessary.” She clarifies. “Trust me, I’ve learned my lesson.”

Ty Lee doesn’t like the threatening tone of Azula’s voice, though she couldn’t really blame her. Ty Lee was saying she didn’t like the idea of Azula making friends with these people, even though she knew nothing about them

She had to give them a chance.

“Okay.” Ty Lee whispers. “I trust you.”


End file.
